Ian Mckellen Returns To NZ In Waiting For Godot

MEDIA RELEASE: TUESDAY 15 MARCH 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Ian Mckellen Returns To NZ In Waiting For Godot

“Masterly McKellen glitters. ...” London Evening Standard, 2010

“The funniest and most compassionate production you will ever see. ....” Daily Telegraph (UK), 2010

Acclaimed British theatre star Sir Ian McKellen returns to New Zealand in June for a very limited season of the award-winning production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.

Kay and McLean Productions Pty Ltd, Arnold M Crook, Paul Elliott, Nigel Everett and Duncan C Weldon in association with HVK Productions and Michael Coppel today announced the Wellington and Christchurch seasons of London’s Theatre Royal Haymarket Company’s production of Waiting for Godot starring Ian McKellen (Estragon), Roger Rees (Vladimir), Matthew Kelly (Pozzo) and Michael Burrell (Lucky).

Sir Ian is best known in New Zealand as Gandalf in Peter’s Jackson’s Academy Award-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy and last performed on New Zealand stages in 2007 in the Royal Shakespeare Company productions of King Lear and The Seagull in Auckland and Wellington.

When Samuel Beckett's play exploded on to the stage 50 years ago, it shocked as many people as it delighted. There had never been a play like it; indeed it was said that: "(Beckett) has achieved a theoretical impossibility – a play in which nothing happens, that yet keeps audiences glued to their seats".

In the play, two old friends (Estragon and Vladimir) meet to converse, joke and argue with themselves as they wait through one day and then another for the mysterious Godot. The combination of music hall, poetry and tension redefined what is possible in theatre, so that today, Waiting for Godot is accepted as one of the most significant plays of the 20th century.

Following its record-breaking season last year at the Theatre Royal Haymarket (for both the play and the theatre), Waiting for Godot directed by Sean Mathias will conclude its hugely successful return season in the West End before touring to Australia and then on to New Zealand from May to July this year.

Waiting for Godot has four performances at the St James Theatre, Wellington from June 30 to July 2, and at the Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch on July 13 and 14 for three performances only. Tickets are on sale through Ticketek from Saturday 20 March phone 0800 TICKETEK (842 538) or www.ticketek.co.nz. For more information, visit www.akaaustralia.com.au

"The theatrical event of the year" Daily Express (UK)

“It’s harrowing, it’s funny, it’s human: go and see it, and laugh till you cry. ...” Time Out (UK), 2010

For full information about Waiting for Godot, including cast biographies, log onto www.waitingforgodottheplaycom

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