Would you give this "beggar" money?
A passerby in Melbourne, Australia, certainly did, offering an Aussie dollar to the bedraggled man crouching by the stage door of the Comedy Theatre in 2010. Presumably unbeknownst to the generous stranger, however, the "tramp" was in fact a costumed Sir Ian McKellen, the internationally acclaimed British actor who has been nominated for just about every acting award worth winning.
McKellen was in Melbourne rehearsing Samuel Beckett's classic "Waiting For Godot."
So astonished was the actor by the incident, he attempted to replicate it the next day. McKellen, dressed as his "Waiting for Godot" character, Estragon, quickly earned another $2, The Herald Sun reported. (And this time a photographer snapped evidence.)
Photos recreating the incident are receiving renewed attention this week, perhaps because the pictures are awesome, or because the absurdist drama "Waiting For Godot" is currently in previews at Broadway's Cort Theater and will officially open later this month.
Co-starring the similarly illustrious Patrick Stewart, the play portrays "now mythic tramps, Estragon and Vladimir, living in eternal hope of salvation in their own no-man’s-land," according to Vanity Fair.
