By Steven McIntoshLeisure reporter
Paddington star Ben Whishaw is to seem in a new West Finish manufacturing of Samuel Beckett’s Ready for Godot.
The actor, 43, credits the engage in with encouraging him to fall out of university additional than two decades ago and review acting as an alternative.
He will star reverse Lucian Msamati, who has beforehand appeared in Video game of Thrones and Gangs of London.
Whishaw informed BBC Information he was “unbelievably thrilled and thrilled – and a little terrified also”.
The production, directed by James MacDonald, will open up at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in September 2024.
“When I was 18 I was performing an art basis class in Bedford and went 1 night time with a pal to London to see a play that was portion of a period of plays by Samuel Beckett at the Barbican Theatre. The enjoy was Ready for Godot,” Whishaw recalled.
“The following day I dropped out of my art system, getting decided I preferred to examine performing alternatively. I am unbelievably thrilled and fired up – and a little terrified way too – to be owning this prospect to perform Beckett’s totally radical and unbelievably attractive play.
“It has haunted me considering the fact that that night 25 several years back. And to get to do it with Lucian Msamati and James Macdonald… well, which is just a dream.”
Beckett wrote Waiting For Godot in the late 1940s and it went on to become a single of the most acclaimed performs of the past century.
It focuses on two adult men who meet up with below a tree, both equally waiting for someone named Godot. The enjoy is composed of a sequence of conversations between the gentlemen, neither of whom can leave.
Whishaw will get on the part of Vladimir even though Msamati will perform Estragon.
The last time Ready For Godot was staged in the West Finish was in 2009, in a creation starring Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen.
Whishaw has previously performed gadget expert Q in the James Bond movies reverse Daniel Craig, and starred in This is Likely to Harm, the adaptation of Adam Kay’s health-related memoir.
He will reprise his role as the voice of the titular bear in the forthcoming Paddington in Peru.
Msamati played Salladhor Saan in Activity of Thrones and is also recognised for roles in Luther, Gangs Of London and His Darkish Materials.
Talking about Waiting around For Godot, he said: “The hold out has been really worth it!
“I appear forward earning merry mischief with James Macdonald for the to start with time and a far too extended overdue reunion with the creative brilliance and genuine spirit that is Ben Whishaw.”
Tickets for the manufacturing will go on sale in February, and producers claimed additional casting would be announced in the coming months.