THE fashion for Samuel Beckett plays has received a timely boost thanks to two of Britain's greatest actors.

Malvern Theatres currently, and very proudly, presents Sir Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart in Waiting For Godot, that bleak look at Man’s existence and isolation.

But look beyond that difficult college perception; clear your mind of the conditioned view that Beckett is just too inaccessible.

This production, directed by Sean Mathias, is wonderfully entertaining with the audience laughing in all the right places and sometimes inappropriately as life is laid bare...

There are stand-up jokes, comic dances, subtle nuances – the whole thing is refreshingly informal with some brilliant performances by this exclusive cast.

The musical hall timing of McKellen and Stewart is breathtaking as Gogo and Didi put off doing something (anything!) in the great waiting room of life which is Stephen Brimson Lewis’s imaginative set.

And just when you think nothing is going to happen, along come Simon Callow as the marvellously over-the-top Pozzo and Ronald Pickup as, ironically, Lucky!

Pickup manages to extract applause for his difficult monologue much to the chagrin of the theatre purist, I’m sure, but to the delight of everyone listening.

Beckett bleak? Get real and try and get tickets before its close in Malvern this Saturday, March 14.

JOHN MURPHY