There are very good reasons why Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead has been revered as a modern classic since it first saw light of day onstage in 1966. And Stoppard has gone on to become one of the most respected playwrights in the world, for the legitimate reason that he is one of the most gifted in wit, craft, characterization and plot.
I eagerly made pilgrimages to both London’s West End and New York’s Broadway to see, and love, Stoppard’s later gems, Travesties, Arcadia and the three-part The Coast of Utopia, knowing that his four Tony Awards were all well deserved. Stoppard’s name must be included in any list of the most enjoyable, intelligent and memorable playwrights in the world since the ’60s.
The idea behind R&G is inspired, even as it lifts entire images from two great plays of the last six centuries. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two minor characters in Hamlet, here become central ones, along with King Claudius, Queen Gertrude (a.k.a. Hamlet’s mother), Polonius and others from Shakespeare’s magnificent play. They’re reminiscent of Ham and Clov in garbage cans (from one of the other masterpieces of the 20th century, Samuel Beckett’s Endgame).
Much of the great pleasure we get from Stoppard’s glorious play is in watching R&G know that they will face death, though they are unsure how it will happen — surely the ultimate existential image of our time. Like some of Beckett’s dramatic inventions, the two title characters play word games to pass time; they are filled with dread, and they are unsure what their next moves should be.
This Soulpepper production, directed brilliantly by Joseph Ziegler, stars the excellent Ted Dykstra and Jordan Pettle as the title “heroes” (anti-heroes?). It is so much fun to see them, as it is to see many of the best regulars of Soulpepper (Diego Matamoros, Oliver Dennis, William Webster, Kenneth Welsh, among others) in tiny roles, in spite of the fact that they are usually at the very core and action of the original Hamlet.
It is shocking to recall, during this stunning production, that Stoppard was still in his 20s when he penned this hysterically funny and profound play, with lines such as “We were sent for… that’s why we’re here!” and, “We are entitled to some direction… I would have thought!” which will keep you laughing through the rapidly moving three acts.
Who else but Tom Stoppard could knock off an exchange between R&G which declares that one of them feels “stark, raving sane,” or make our minds spin with the line, “Eternity is a terrible thought; where would it end?” Indeed. That’s matched only by, “Death is the ultimate negative,” tossed off by one of our non-heroes near the end.
And what an end. This is one great, memorable, meaningful evening of theatre; God bless you, Soulpepper.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Soulpepper Theatre Company, Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 50 Tank House Lane, 416-866-8666. Now – Mar. 6