Dominic Hill's post-apocalyptic staging of Samuel Beckett's classic at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow presents a bleakly funny double act, with Matthew Kelly as Estragon and George Costigan as Vladimir. The production, a co-production with the Liverpool Everyman and Bolton Octagon, moves away from the usual music hall echoes towards a more desolate setting.
The backdrop features a lost highway with fading telegraph poles, while Jean Chan's design includes a charred, barren tree and the carcass of a truck that, under Lizzie Powell's lights, resembles a coffin. Even the safety curtain has a morbid air as it grinds upwards.
Kelly's Estragon is morose and irritable, with sore feet and no sleep, while Costigan's Vladimir is the cheery one, trying to galvanise his partner. Their northern English accents and wild grey beards make them an excellent match, capturing the irascibility and interdependence of a couple who no longer know what day it is.
Gbolahan Obisesan as Pozzo intrudes in purple and yellow, commanding a gaunt Michael Hodgson as Lucky. The production is callous and cruel, but bleakly funny. It runs at the Citizens Theatre until 14 March, then at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool from 17 March to 4 April, and the Octagon Theatre in Bolton from 15 April to 2 May.
