Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead Discussion- Page 2

[Sumofallthings]

Posted: 4/23/06 at 11:35pm

What did your performers and director make of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern just fading away?

[slimandslam]

Posted: 4/24/06 at 2:05am

Another R&G fan checking in.

I never saw the movie; I thought it was a betrayal of the central premise of the play, as the characters' entire universe is defined by stage space. For that matter, I've never seen a production of the play (though I did direct the beginning of Act Three for an evening of scenes in college).

So, for me, it only exists in my head, and on the page. I envy those who have seen a real-live production.

Regarding the "fading away" question: I always read it as a sudden disappearance. Blink and they're gone, one at a time. I imagine you'd have to use some sort of lighting effect to have it work that way.

Anyone else love the Pinter parody in Act Two?

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 4/24/06 at 2:13am

I'm with slimandslam in my assessment of their disappearance, that their entire universe is defined by the stage space. Stoppard uses them to comment on a variety of philosophical questions, but like Shakespeare, he is USING them. They are vehicles to move the plot along, and when they aren't necessary, away they go. Honestly, if it weren't for this play or your having played one of them in a production of Hamlet, would you have paid any attention to either of them? Would you have wondered where they came from, what they were really like, etc? I think that's why Stoppard has them popping in and out, because their fate was defined by the parameters of Shakespeare's scenes, but they are otherwise given no backstory. Even their deaths in Hamlet are off-stage, so when Stoppard has them die, it is once again a non-event.

[Sumofallthings]

Posted: 4/24/06 at 7:57am

So everything about their existence is about fate and not making choices and serving a purpose, once that purpose is served they disappear?

[Sally]

Posted: 4/24/06 at 1:08pm

Just a weird footnote about the coin flipping...

For a couple of months, *every* time I dropped something in the kitchen (happens all too often), it landed right side up. What are the odds?

I couldn't help thinking of R&G, which I saw many years ago in Chicago.

[Sumofallthings]

Posted: 4/24/06 at 1:42pm

I think the odds are about 1 in 93 (according to Tom Stoppard). Do you think Guildensterns lengthy speeches are supposed to be delivered comprehensibly to the audience or are they designed to fly over their heads and only make sense in Guildensterns mind (as is the case with the Unicorn and the idea growing thinner).

[Sumofallthings]

Posted: 4/24/06 at 4:45pm

ANYONE? ...shameless bump...

[greenegirl87]

Posted: 4/24/06 at 4:52pm

I think a lot of Guildenstern's speeches are definitely meant to go over the audience's head, because in the scheme of things, they don't really matter at all in the play. They are almost difficult to understand when reading, and very difficult to understand and grasp when watching and having it all go by so fast. Although some really interesting concepts are brought up by him, the whole point of the play is that nothing matters whatsoever when it comes to the course of life.

I love how frustrating it is as a human being to sit and watch this play where we are constantly reminded we can't do anything to change the ending that we already know, yet constantly feel the need to question.