The question of whether or not Waiting for Godot is a comedy, or at least, sometimes funny, entirely depends on the production. The script itself is up to interpretation, so it pretty much falls upon the director and the actors to find the comedy. While it's completely possible to make it completely a drama, I think a Waiting for Godot with no comedy would be a very slow, hard-to-sit-through show.
The version of Godot we saw last night at The Barbican Theatre fell somewhat short of what I was expecting in the comedy department. After watching McKellen and Stewart find the humor so effortlessly, I was kind of expecting to be in stitches. It had it's moments, Gogo and Didi's imitation of Pozzo and Lucky and Lucky's dramatic fall off the side of the stage come to mind, but I think this production was more of a funny tragedy than a tragic comedy.
One thing that really contributed to this is the portrayal of Pozzo and Lucky. I did not read Pozzo nearly as villainous as Philip Quast played him. I thoroughly enjoyed his take on Pozzo, and I think it had comedic moments of it's own, but the manipulative and destructive relationship between Pozzo and Lucky made it almost uncomfortable to laugh at times. While reading the script, I thought Pozzo was this over the top, completely ridiculous caricature, and Lucky his shy and somewhat off-beat servant. Despite him being Lucky's master, I did not read Pozzo nearly as mean, degrading, and, at some times, evil, as he was in the production. Because of this, I think some moments that could have been read as funny in the script were hard to watch on stage.
Before Godot yesterday, we spent the morning at Hampton Court Palace, where numerous Kings and Queens resided. It had one of the most beautiful gardens I had ever seen, and every room had such extravagant and beautiful paintings and decorations. Not a bad place to spend your days as a monarch in England.
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