Sean Mathias' new production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, which arrives at the Theatre Royal Haymarket after a successful national tour, brings together two of Britain's best actors, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen. The result is an accessible if sometimes superficial intrepretation of this modern masterwork.

Mathias has chosen to ramp up the music hall aspect so that Vladimir and Estragon feel like two old showmen. The vaudeville quality is emphasized further by Stephen Brimson Lewis's set, which echoes the Haymarket theatre's existing proscenium arch -- although his is crumbling in a state of decay and disrepair. The stage is littered with fallen masonry on which Vladimir and E[...]