If you were looking for the play that most comprehensively distills the gestalt of the human condition, you’d probably settle on either Hamletor Samuel Beckett’s 1953 absurdist tragicomedy about two guys (Estragon and Vladimir) waiting for the arrival of a third (Godot, here rhyming with the second half of “avocado”). Seattle Shakespeare Company, which four years ago cast Darragh Kennan as the best Hamlet I’m likely to see, now transposes this thespian cruise missile to another existentially impotent role—that of Estragon, aka Gogo, whose mind and feet are failing him. He and Vladimir (aka Didi, played by Todd Jefferson Moore) pass several days as painfully as the kidney stones Didi squeezes into a bucket offstage. The line “Nothing to be done” hangs in the air, as does the famous motif of giving birth directly into the grave. But where Hamlet’s despair is a lonely affair, Didi and Gogo’s push-me-pull-you dynamics define both the hell and the solace of friendship.

Beckett isn’t shy about inflicting the kind of tedium on audiences that his characters have to endure. But he also gives us slick lazzi opportunities, a few tender gestures, and merciful interludes with Pozzo, played past the hilt by the captivating Chris Ensweiler as a wide-eyed, craven psychopath. A nod to commedia dell’arte, Pozzo delights in flaunting his wealth and degrading his slave Lucky (Jim Hamerlinck, pale as driftwood).

The heavy makeup, Robertson Witmer’s sound design, Roberta Russell’s dramatic lighting, and Craig Wollam’s spare, red-curtained proscenium set—over which a pancake moon is hoisted by crank—all culminate in an unapologetic aura of “life’s a stage” theatricality. (George Mount directs.)

Despite the lumpy camaraderie of Moore and Kennan, the greatest emotional effects emerge between Didi and the unnamed boy (Alex Silva) Godot sends to postpone the meeting. Seated on the far right side, I felt grateful to have a view of Moore’s face poisoned by the few words from this pint-sized messenger of nihilism. Unlike Gogo, Didi is cursed with the awareness that life is brutish and capricious; and verily, there is nothing to be done. ACT Theatre, 700 Union St., 292-7676, seattleshakespeare.org. $25–$48. 7:30 p.m. Wed.–Sat. plus matinees. Ends Sept. 21.

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