May 8, 2008
I watched this play, to start with, with mixed feelings. First off, I’d advise anyone who sees it to have a working knowledge of Hamlet’s synopsis at least – there’s no real need to have studied or seen it, but knowing the original context minimises confusion. It makes the inside jokes within the play’s humour just a bit easier to digest, not to mention the brief chunks of Shakespearean verse that sometimes hit you.
The Rosencrantz and Guildenstern whom we watch are minor characters in the original and the majority of Hamlet’s plot takes place outside our view, interrupting the scene at occasions with surreal, absurd moments from the original play. This production reflected this rather cleverly through the unusual layout of the Keble O’Reilly theatre, with the audience surrounding the performance on both sides, creating a fishbowl effect that emphasises the play’s themes of acting and performance. Two trunks and a wheelbarrow provide the only set furniture; precisely cut lighting cues create the rest, shifting the scene expertly from Shakespeare to Stoppard.
Saturated with philosophical musings and oddly-flavoured humour, the play itself may not appeal to all, but what brings warmth to it is the pair’s interaction with each other, their often grating relationship with its unceasing banter, revealing itself to be a mutual dependence. By the end of the play, we sympathise with their futile, bewildered attempts to control their fate.
Within this theatrical limbo where they never exit the stage, the two leads shine. Though often confused and interchangeable in Shakespeare’s original play (leading the characters to often become baffled by their own identities), Liam Wells as Rosencrantz and William Spray as Guildenstern bring to life two distinct personas, struggling in their own fashion against the events unfolding around them, ultimately beyond their control. Well’s naïve but compassionate character is a joy to watch and never tiring, and though Spray’s Guildenstern is of a more pensive quality, his physical acting at times is (comically) spectacular. In this vacuum, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern exist and act, and their futile searches for meaning and purpose to their life weaves humour into a slow and inexorable tragedy as we watch them, confused and buffeted about by fate, heading towards the inevitable death already written four hundred long years ago.
The Rosencrantz and Guildenstern whom we watch are minor characters in the original and the majority of Hamlet’s plot takes place outside our view, interrupting the scene at occasions with surreal, absurd moments from the original play. This production reflected this rather cleverly through the unusual layout of the Keble O’Reilly theatre, with the audience surrounding the performance on both sides, creating a fishbowl effect that emphasises the play’s themes of acting and performance. Two trunks and a wheelbarrow provide the only set furniture; precisely cut lighting cues create the rest, shifting the scene expertly from Shakespeare to Stoppard.
Saturated with philosophical musings and oddly-flavoured humour, the play itself may not appeal to all, but what brings warmth to it is the pair’s interaction with each other, their often grating relationship with its unceasing banter, revealing itself to be a mutual dependence. By the end of the play, we sympathise with their futile, bewildered attempts to control their fate.
Within this theatrical limbo where they never exit the stage, the two leads shine. Though often confused and interchangeable in Shakespeare’s original play (leading the characters to often become baffled by their own identities), Liam Wells as Rosencrantz and William Spray as Guildenstern bring to life two distinct personas, struggling in their own fashion against the events unfolding around them, ultimately beyond their control. Well’s naïve but compassionate character is a joy to watch and never tiring, and though Spray’s Guildenstern is of a more pensive quality, his physical acting at times is (comically) spectacular. In this vacuum, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern exist and act, and their futile searches for meaning and purpose to their life weaves humour into a slow and inexorable tragedy as we watch them, confused and buffeted about by fate, heading towards the inevitable death already written four hundred long years ago.