DUBLIN'S GATE THEATRE TACKLES BECKETT WORK.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

Those poor tramps Vladimir and Estragon. Their wait is getting endless.

In the last five weeks alone, they've waited in Texas; in Kansas; Columbus, Ohio; and Ann Arbor, Mich. They'll wait in Berkeley and, starting tonight, they'll be waiting in Westwood.

Not that Godot, unseen subject of Samuel Beckett's existential comedy ``Waiting for Godot'' will ever show up or that Didi and Gogo would know what to do if he ever got there.

Still, if anyone could set themselves up as an authority on this particular vigil, they would be the members of the Gate Theatre of Dublin, whose tour comes to UCLA's Freud Playhouse for five performances starting Wednesday. In addition to taking on the entire repertory of Beckett's works for two different Beckett Festivals, the Gate has toured this production ``Godot'' off and on since 1991.

The production is directed by Walter Asmus, who worked with the playwright on the 1975 production of ``Godot'' in Berlin.

``The four of us and the director have sort of grown old together with this,'' said Alan Stanford, who has been Godot-ing all over the world with fellow cast members Barry McGovern, Johnny Murphy and Stephen Brennan. ``Every time we approach it, we try to make it simpler and purer.'' Probably the most accessible of Beckett's plays - and certainly the most well-known - ``Godot'' doesn't often get a professional staging. So many of us have read it, maybe struggled over trying to interpret it for a literature class, but have not seen it.

``Often they're only being staged by undergraduates at universities,'' said Stanford. ``So Gogo and Didi, far from having lived together for 50 years, have known each other maybe two semesters.

``The show has an absolute resilience to it,'' he added. ``You can do it on a postage stamp stamp or at an amphitheater in Delphi. It doesn't matter.''

The Gate production also gives viewers the opportunity to her Beckett's language delivered in Irish accents. The Dublin-born Beckett spent most of his adult life in France and wrote many of his early plays in French. It's part of the Gate's mission to reclaim Beckett for the Irish.

The only non-Irish accent in the Gate's ``Godot'' will come from Stanford, who plays the slave driver Pozzo.

``The critics have obviously interpreted this as a statement on Anglo- Irish relations,'' said Stanford. ``All of that's a load of rubbish. I'm English by birth and this is the way I speak.''

``WAITING FOR GODOT''

Where: UCLA Freud Playhouse.

When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday; ends Sunday.

Tickets: $9 to $40. Call [phone].

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Barry McGovern stars as Vladimir in ``Waiting for Godot.''