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Waiting for Godot

A couple of weeks ago I went to the Theatre Royal Haymarket to see 'Waiting for Godot'.   This is one of the first real plays that I've ever seen so it was a real novelty.   Ian McKellen and Roger Rees were very good in the main roles.

The story centres around two apparently homeless men waiting around in a desolate area.   They are waiting for someone or something called Godot throughout the whole play.   

I thought that this play was going to be much heavier than it was.   I think that was partly to do with the performers injecting quite a bit of humour into it.   Really, the story is about the two characters trying to entertain each other as they wait.   They need to entertain each other or they start to dwell on their lives and existence.

Also, 2 other characters appear.   A rich upper-class man and his servant.   They are tied together and through the first act the rich man abuses his servant.   Through the second act the rich man is blind and is now lead by his servant.   The roles are reversed and is some kind of metaphor of the class system and the dependencies between the classes.

I suppose that if you read into it, its about the wait through life and the pointlessness of existence.   This said, I think that there is a light hearted side with alleviates the heaviness of the subject matter.

Will definitely be up for going to see another one of this types of plays.