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25th anniversary of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead premier in USA
February 2nd, 2016 at 6:56:00 AM permalink | |
Pacomartin Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 1068 Posts: 12569 | For fans of Gary Oldman and Tim Roth Gary Oldman as Rosencrantz Tim Roth as Guildenstern Richard Dreyfuss as The Lead Player Iain Glen as Prince Hamlet (Now playing on Game of Thrones) Ian Richardson as Polonius Joanna Miles as Gertrude Donald Sumpter as King Claudius Sven Medvesck as Laertes Tom Stoppard, first staged at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 1966, and is considered one of the most successful graduate school projects in history. He imagined Hamlet as viewed by the minor and much abused characters , Guildenstern & Rosencrantz or is it Rosencrantz & Guildenstern. They are so unimportant that the major characters often forget which one is which. For a hundred years most productions of Hamlet ended on Horatio's words Now cracks a noble heart.—Good night, sweet prince, And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!— Stoppard's play is based on the ambassador's line afterwards that is usually cut out as it ties up what is often considered an unimportant plot line. The ears are senseless that should give us hearing, To tell him his commandment is fulfilled, That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. |
February 2nd, 2016 at 7:41:07 AM permalink | |
odiousgambit Member since: Oct 28, 2012 Threads: 154 Posts: 5108 | I made some comments, but they made no sense as I think [?] the very video you show is scenes from 'Hamlet' in which R and G are present The Stoppard play is in fact called 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead' One thing cool about it is that you can recognize lines from 'Hamlet' as they go about this and that, perhaps passing a room with a scene going on that it makes sense they might hear I'm Still Standing, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah [it's an old guy chant for me] |
February 5th, 2016 at 4:15:04 PM permalink | |
Pacomartin Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 1068 Posts: 12569 |
Every scene in Hamlet that includes R&G is part of Stoppard's play. So, yes the scene from the movie is actually a scene from Hamlet. I've seen it maybe four times. In the first production, the Hamlet scenes are done very dull, lifeless, and detached. It makes the in between dialogue seem more animated.
It is the one thing certain about their reality, the lines they have in Hamlet. In fact the characters in Stoppard's play spend a lot of time wondering about predestination and randomness in the universe. They play athletic games and word games, and try to puzzle out what the motivations are of the primary characters. R&G do not have any lines in the fifth act of Hamlet. But it is in that act that it is revealed that Hamlet conspired to have R&G executed in place of the intended victims, Hamlet and Laertes. It is at this point that Stoppard's play shifts into overdrive. R&G uncover the plot and are desperate to live. But Shakespeare has not given them any more lines, so their fate is permanently sealed, and they are doomed to vanish without anyone hearing from them again.
'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead' is a direct quote the final lines of the play. Since this portion of the play was almost always admitted for centuries as being too distracting to Hamlet's death, it is the ultimate indignity to R&G. Their eventual destiny is to unimportant to be included. Before Stoppard wrote his play, R&G were a kind of tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum. Rosencrantz was chiefly remembered as being the mouthpiece that reflected Shakespeare's contempt for theater with troupes composed of children. Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace; but there is, sir, an eyrie of children, little eyases, that cry out on the top of question and are most tyrannically clapp'd for't. These are now the fashion, and so berattle the common stages (so they call them) that many wearing rapiers are afraid of goosequills and dare scarce come thither.-Rosencrantz |
February 5th, 2016 at 5:37:07 PM permalink | |
odiousgambit Member since: Oct 28, 2012 Threads: 154 Posts: 5108 | I confess to seeking assistance
http://nfs.sparknotes.com/hamlet/page_112.html I'm Still Standing, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah [it's an old guy chant for me] |
February 5th, 2016 at 8:03:50 PM permalink | |
Pacomartin Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 1068 Posts: 12569 |
If you watch "Playing Shakespeare", John Barton's teaching series with all the great actors of the RSC, they readily admit that no one knows all the archaic terminology of four hundred years ago. They struggle sometimes with the desire to update the language since they themselves would not know what the words mean. So everyone must seek assistance.The phrase "cry out on the top of question" is completely archaic. The fact that a group of child actors was taking London by storm in 1600 was documented. The city had a population of about 200,000 and many people did not want to see a play more than once. There was a struggle for some type of dignity, as the Globe was right next to a bear-baiting pit, a whorehouse, and a lot of places to drink. The extreme popularity of the child actors threatened the financial integrity of some of the playhouses. |
February 5th, 2016 at 8:21:02 PM permalink | |
Pacomartin Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 1068 Posts: 12569 | In a traditional Hamlet production, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern dress alike and are similar looking and are often confused for one another. They never question authority, and Rosencrantz says that "people in authority" must be respected because when they fall, they drag down many ordinary people in the confusion.
So in the Stoppard play they look completely different from each other (often played by a white and a black actor), they question everything, and collect all kinds of information by spying. But they still die since that was their story as written by Shakespeare. Their world is bizarre. Even the laws of probability don't seem to hold. |