The Stage

Rosencrantz and Guildernstern Are Dead

Published Wednesday 7 February 2007 at 17:15 by Andrew Liddle

Tom Stoppard’s wonderfully absurdist Rosencranz and Guildenstern Are Dead is very much a play outside a play, as the discussions of two minor characters from Hamlet are intercut with lines from the great tragedy that is taking place for the most part off stage.

Their rhetorical meditations, repetitions, ambiguities and ontological speculations seem almost to define Stoppardian humour. And from the beginning, when questioning our perceptions of probability as a coin repeatedly lands heads, we sense in Leigh Symonds’ Rosencrantz and Graeme Hawley’s Guildenstern we are watching two masters of comic timing. The former rolls his eyes in sheer stupefaction, the latter, imagining himself to be the brighter, squinnies into the metaphysical middle distance.

The group of actors who chance upon events are led splendidly by Michael Jenn, at times uncannily like Gielgud playing Lenin. If he does not saw the air, he certainly hams it for all he’s worth and his dying swan act brings the house down - as does his indignant line, “We’re actors. We’re the opposite of people.”

There are, of course, some choice encounters with Phil Rowson’s crazed and understated Hamlet, who when asked portentously “Where is it going to end?” can only coin the phrase, “That is the question”. There are some terrific lines, a strong cast of 13 and deft touches from director Chris Honer. It all adds up to a must see.