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So who, then, were the eminently forgettable Rosencrantz and Guildenstern? These two chaps were called over to the Palace as erstwhile friends of Hamlet in a bid to help him relax and remember better times. Literary criticism is divided on quite why Billy Shakespeare then gave them next ... Read review
Advantages: A true one-off Disadvantages: Can't tell you: it would spoil it...
...then, were the eminently forgettable Rosencrantz and Guildenstern? These two chaps were called over to the Palace as erstwhile friends of Hamlet in a bid to help him relax and remember better times. Literary criticism is divided on quite why Billy Shakespeare then gave them next to no lines in the play to achieve this! They are bit-players, C-list actors fill their roles at best, and their fate in the play, although barely given a passing thought, ... ...to see.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead opens with our none-heroes spinning coins. They have done this many times but this time 92 coins have been spun and for 92 times the coins have come down heads. Guildenstern is disconcerted: has even the law of probability deserted the two of them?
This play is usually played out on an empty stage used to represent the wings of a theatre as the great Hamlet plays over to ... more
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is possibly the single most famous play in the history of British literature. It deals with the vast issues: the grandest of thoughts, pains and emotions. Hamlet, the son of a great King wrestles with his subconscious knowledge of an evil misdoing that has led to his uncle taking the throne and a place in his mother’s bed. Monumental stuff, eh?
No, there is no time for anything but the consideration of the biggest of questions as the play leads us down the spiral into madness of the mind of Hamlet.
So who, then, were the eminently forgettable Rosencrantz and Guildenstern? These two chaps were called over to the Palace as erstwhile friends of Hamlet in a bid to help him relax and remember better times. Literary criticism is divided on quite why Billy Shakespeare then gave them next to no lines in the play to achieve this! They are bit-players, C-list actors fill their roles at best, and their fate in the play, although barely given a passing thought, is certain death.
Step in the single cheekiest contemporary playwright: Mr Tom Stoppard. In 1967 Stoppard decided to elaborate the tale of these two nobodies, to consider what it was like for these characters to be full-time in the wings of the great tragedy with little or no idea of what was going on, or what they were supposed to do.
This is a great premise for what is one of the funniest plays you are ever likely to see.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead opens with our none-heroes spinning coins. They have done this many times but this time 92 coins have been spun and for 92 times the coins have come down heads. Guildenstern is disconcerted: has even the law of probability deserted the two of them?
This play is usually played out on an empty stage used to represent the wings of a theatre as the great Hamlet plays over to the left. From time to time a great swoop of colourful characters will walk on, saying the few lines that are said to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and then swoop away again, leaving them even more confused than before. Our boys have little memory, no understanding of what they are doing, a concern that everything is pre-ordained (well their lives are scripted, after all) and a complete inability to take control of absolutely anything!
I give you just a small taster of the reigning confusion:
ROS: “I want to go home.” GUILD: “Don’t let them confuse you.” ROS: “I’m out of my step here.” GUILD: “We’ll soon be home and high – dry and home – I’ll–“ ROS: “It’s all over my depth –“ GUID “I’ll hie you home and –“ ROS: “out of my head-” GUILD: “dry you high and-” ROS: “ over my step over my head body! I tell you it’s all stopping to a death, it’s boding to a depth, stepping to a head, it’s all heading to a dead stop.”
Oh dear.
So what, my friends is their alternative fate in this alternative universe? Well now wouldn’t that be telling!
Many have likened the concept of this play to Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, and with good reason: absurdity and fatalism are of tantamount importance in both. Yet I would still maintain that this much funnier play is still a true original. First produced in 1967 the play is a regular on many stages around the world today.
If you know Hamlet well then the skill of the Stoppard plot will not escape you. Although significantly shorter in running time than Shakespeare's play, each entrance and exit of the Hamlet characters is apparently timed to give Rosencrantz and Guildenstern the (condensed) "waiting times" that they would have had in Hamlet.
If you have never seen or read the great play itself then you will still find this play both clever and humorous, albeit to get the most out of a great night out you really should take a look at both printed plays before you go, so that you don’t miss a trick!
Kirsty1 20.08.2002 (21.08.2002)
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Review of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead - Tom Stoppard
Advantages: Intellectually stimulating comedy Disadvantages: Pointless if you haven't read Hamlet
...ever read Hamlet will know, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern die in the end, but unlike Shakespeare, Stoppard has made us care for these irrelevant characters and feel remorse when they die. Yet their death is bitter sweet, for as they emphasise throughout the play they are only actors; they aren't really dead, they will come back and do it all again tommorrow night. Like the loop of drama that Stoppard created within the play, I think 'Rosencrantz and ... ...and on.
I don't think this is the funniest of Stoppard's plays but I'd think it is the best and the most societally relevant. The comedy within it is more subtle than laugh out loud, but that doesn't mean it isn't funny. I would recommend this play to anyone who is sick of the extroverted exagerated humour of modern comedy drama and wants something more subtle and intellectually stimulating. I wanted to understand this book so badly that I went ...
torberry00 28.04.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead - Tom Stoppard
Advantages: Very funny - Very well written Disadvantages: The smaller characters are just a little too small to create enough impact
Tom Stoppard, before the success of "Shakespeare In Love", wrote a lot of fine plays. "Rosencrantz And Guildenstern" is by far one of his better.
Take the absurdity of Samuel Beckett, the comedy of David Mamet and the smoothness of Arthur Miller - put them all in a pot and mix for about an hour and a half and you end end up with a very smooth, funny absurd piece of theatre, but also a touch of genius that is "Rosencrantz & Guildernsten".
The two ... ...often cut from the Shakespeare tragedy, but Stoppard decides to show what ACTUALLY happens - and all through the eyes of the two poor friends of Hamlet.
The mix between the play and "Hamlet" are brilliantly written, and the dialogue is simply superb. You must read this play if you are a fan of Shakespeare or Stoppard or if you just like to laugh.
Although plays are meant to be seen and not read, reading this will still give you a fair old chukle. ...
Kozinski 22.11.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead - Tom Stoppard
In my view the play 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead' is a work of genius. The seamless blending of Hamlet and a play of such complete originality seems effortless. I studies the play for A Level and so went into the play with the same feeling I'd had all year-dread, but when I came out at the other side my head was left contemplating so many questions that I could do nothing but read it again.
The main eponimous characters seem like two lost ... ...purpose for this theme allowing them a sense of order every now and again.
There are too many themes to mention at once, but one of the main themes is that of chance. The play expertly highlights that life is nothing more than a game of chance, shown simplistically at the beginning by the game of tossing coins the characters play.
It shows how life a game and we're all waiting for our time to shuffle off this 'mortal coil'.
The humour of the piece ...
kslov 23.08.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead - Tom Stoppard
...interest in hamlet, that of rosencrantz and guildenstern who die quite quickly, and sees in them room for the interpreation of those feelings of alienation and misunderstanding that were the key to the theatre of the absurd. this si a very clever and a very funny play and one that made the playwright very famous, before he went on to write shakespeare in love. i recommend this, but it is rather difficult to read and depends on the knowledge you have ...
lewiscrofts 16.07.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead - Tom Stoppard
Advantages: brilliantly funny Disadvantages: some of the meaning is lost if you ahvent seen or read Hamlet.
This is a great play to read. But very difficult to perform. Though Stoppards stage directions are extensive and detailed, the interchangeability of the characters and the actual idea of the play, serving to fill in time before the characters are "on stage" in Hamlet, lead to it being difficult to fully place the characters. though saying that, the production of the play i ahve seen have tackeled the daunting prspect with a vigour, and ahve mangeded ... ...way. But this is one of the best plays ive read in a long time. its hillariously funny, pacey and brilliantly written. You do need some knowledge of Hamlet to be able to understand some of the irony, but its great if youve got a couple of hours. Yourgonna need it. ...
jennythezebra 17.03.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead - Tom Stoppard
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Advantages: Economy of style; oblique, sharp wit and humour; palpable tension; comprehensible mathematical and scientific ideas. Disadvantages: Can be a tad complex; I haven't seen it onstage; not available on audiobook or film.
'It is a defect of God's humour that he directs our hearts everywhere but to those who have a right to them.'
-- Lady Croom, in Arcadia
What Lady Croom refers to might also be known as 'the attraction which Newton had left out,' - namely, sex, and the disorderliness it fosters in our lives. It's only one of several themes that British playwright TomStoppard toys with in his brilliant play, Arcadia (1993).
There's something in Mr Stoppard's works ('Rosencrantz and GuildensternareDead', 1965, about two minor characters from Hamlet, to the screenplay of 'Shakespeare in Love', 1998) that tends to quicken the pulse. He seems to have created a language all his own, with an economy to the writing and always - a razor sharp, if oblique, wit. Yet, unlike the stand-alone bon mots of Oscar Wilde, many of Mr Stoppard's 'quotable ...
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![Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead [1991] [Dutch Import]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/116060779.jpg "Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead [1991] [Dutch Import]")
