Here are two programmes from nine years apart. As a student in 1971, I saw Peter O’Toole at Nottingham Playhouse. His performance was spellbinding. I have included a newspaper review at the end of the programme. Harold Hobson put it better than I ever could. One of my all time great nights in a theatre.
Godot Nottingham Playhouse 1971
Ten years later I was at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester at a production starring Max Wall and Trevor Peacock. By now I was a teacher and studying the play with my A-Level group. They were bright students and liked the play but, whenever I suggested that it was at all funny, they would not have it. It was sad. It was tragic. It was full of despair. Definitely not funny. I couldn’t persuade them. So, I took them to see this production and, as these two superb comic actors had the Royal Exchange audience rocking with laughter, I turned to my students and whispered, “It IS definitely funny”.
Godot Royal Exchange 1980