Hats off to one that will linger

You can take a man out of Ireland, but . . . Rarely can the rhythms and cadences and lyrical wit of his native land have been more resolutely delivered than in Gabor Tompa's intensely moving and humane production of, arguably, Beckett's greatest play.

The bleached, parched roadside spot at which the two philosopher-clown tramps wait in vain, is littered with the dusty shoes of thousands of fellow-travellers, who have passed this way in the hope of the appearance of something, anything, to relieve their bleak existence.

Andrei Both's set invokes a plethora of poignant contemporary images, from the holocaust to the genocides in Africa and Tompa's own eastern Europe, at which divine intervention again failed to materialise.

In the patient trying on of other men's shoes and the hesitant movement towards some kind of resolution, one's thoughts are also directed towards the soft-shoe shuffle of the peace negotiations taking place across the hill at Stormont.

In terms of supreme performance, there is absolutely nothing to choose between Sean Campion's far-seeing, vulnerable Vladimir and Conleth Hill's eager, cunning Estragon; theirs a friendship which has survived poverty, disappointment and personality clashes - and will continue to do so.

The jarring, power-shifting intervention of Donncha Crawley's gimlet-eyed Pozzo and Ned Dennehy's pitiful Lucky is a perfectly timed counterpoint to the melodious, minor key harmonies of Campion and Hill, as is the innocent, out-of-body message relayed from Godot by The Boy, played, alternately, by Joe Mcgee and David Stephenson.

This is a Godot which will linger long in hearts and minds.

Runs until November 27th. To book phone Belfast 381081.