Ah, Waiting for Godot, a mainstay in high school English classes. The source of plenty of teen angst on the night before the paper is due (Is it an allegory? A series of metaphors? A prayer because it anagrams to To God?) while delving deep into playwright Samuel Beckett’s psyche.

Now on stage at the Andrews Theatre, this skillful production by Irish Classical Theatre Company is a charmingly ironic choice for the launch of a new season. Indeed we were all waiting for the day we could return to live theatre, and this was the show – more than 30 years ago –that launched ICTC in Buffalo. For that, we are most fortunate.

This production features ICTC founder Vincent O’Neill as Vladimir and Brian Mysliwy as Estragon as they wait for the mysterious Godot. They’re funny, they’re poignant, they’re introspective, and most of all….they are patient as they wait. Even their impatience has a languid sort of urgency to it. They’re waiting because they have no place else to go, but they’re frantic because Godot the divine cannot be missed. Their wait is interrupted in act one when the lofty Pozzo (Todd Benzin) arrives with manservant Lucky (Ben Michael Moran). Moran steals the first act by his very presence. He’s damaged in spirit and in body, yet he’s the quietly loyal man in service.  Pozzo and Lucky intrude on act two as well; this time the passage of time has taken Pozzo’s sight and Lucky’s voice. The only other actor – Jackson Snodgrass as The Boy – delivers the same message twice: Godot is not coming today, perhaps tomorrow. And still we wait. Because sometimes a story is just a story, no other agenda.

I am fond of the Andrews house and the versatility and utility of the stage. Set designer Paul Bostaph makes clever use of the space with the focal point tree, missing its midsection so the audience has sightlines. Drab in color, like the disheveled wardrobe on Vladimir and Estragon and the snappiness of Pozzo, the set is the perfectly plain backdrop for words that banter and provoke.

Director and Dialect coach Josephine Hogan had the gold standard cast for this. She kept the patter on point, perhaps a bit too well. My plebian ears struggled at times.

It was a grand way to launch a live season again in a venerable house that never disappoints. Waiting for Godot runs two hours with a brief intermission and is onstage until February 13. Visit www.irishclassical.com for details and tickets.