When I go to the theatre, I don’t ask for much from the production team and cast. I am a simple soul, very much like those early playgoers during Shakespeare’s own lifetime, who just bowled up to The Globe expecting to be lifted out of their normally harsh and unfruitful lives for just a little while. My hopes are the same; that I can forget to horrid world we live in for a couple of hours, whilst some hard working jobbing actors do their utmost to entertain me and the rest of the audience by telling a tale that some clever clogs writer has stitched together almost solely for that purpose, oh yes, and to pay his own rent if there is a profit.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, satisfied all my deepest needs and desires.
Of course before it even starts, you think that you have to have put your hard earned cash on a winner. For a start it was written by Tom Stoppard, whose name alone sends a little ripple of excitement up my spine having seen and enjoyed his plays so many times in the past. I told a friend the other day that if I were asked who I would in a fantasy world like to engage with over the dinner table, that Tom Stoppard would be high on my ‘A’ list. He would also be the name that came up if asked who you would like to be if you could come back again after death. Yes, I would like to have been Tom Stoppard. His plays, as I have found are always rather more than just a piece of entertainment. His plays please me deeply and I leave the theatre with a bit of a silly smile on my face, a secret feeling all of my own.
With Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, it will be helpful if you are familiar with Hamlet and I cannot say how many times I have indulged in that one as an evening out. It reminded me of a Christmas cracker joke for years ago;
Q. What is the difference between a lot of people sitting on a cake and a play on words. A. One is a conundrum and the other is a bun under ‘em.
This play is, a lot of the time, about as silly as that stupid joke, but a play on words is very much what it is, and much of that is so very funny and utterly pleasing, whether you have lost the thread or not, you should perhaps have been paying attention more closely because Tom Stoppard is nothing if not wordy.
This cast is excellent with Daniel Radcliffe as Rosencrantz and young Joshua Mcguire as Guildenstern and it doesn’t matter if you remember which one is playing which because everything about this play is played; milked to a cliff edge, with and including Hamlet’s very serious play within the play.
The other star is nothing if not a surprise gift to the audience since David Haig makes you think that this part was written especially for him. David Haig’s part is that of The Player and he is the essential ingredient of this clever witches pot of Hamlet nonsense, playing his troupe for, and with, the hopeless, hapless and useless pair, struggling with the meaning and truth of their existence all of which is being tossed in the air like jugglers clubs until there is just a blur. By the end all I could do was feel thankful at being able to catch this utter gem directed by David Leveaux. Excellent.
The play was shown live from the Old Vic Theatre to cinemas all over the country. David Haig, Thank you sir. Daniel Radcliffe and Joshua McGuire, long may you both be so brilliant.
One last tiny touch that added to our enjoyment is that Steve and I are entered in the Ironman 70.3 Elsinore in Denmark… Yes that’s right, Hamlets Castle will feature strongly in that event when we go there in June, just a few weeks away. It has been many years since I competed in a race of that distance and I am sure that somewhere in the middle of it, I might feel as confused about what I am doing as did Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Stoppard funny-clever play. In my case, I may not think it either funny or clever to be struggling through a half marathon after a fifty six mile bike ride and a 1900 metre swim in the harbour of Hamlets Elsinore, praying that I can make it to the old town finish point.
My companions for the evening are known in our swim group as the usual suspects; Anthony Towers, Brian Wilson, Michelle Chittenden and us two. We do like a good evening out now and then, we had hit not quite the high spot of the town, when we went to The Thai Kitchen in Pier Road, just a walk from the cinema. The manager who was very good at helping us with the menu, but finally having ascertained, that we didn’t want anything too hot or too spicy, and the only thing we were all in agreement about was that we liked chicken, but wanted to be served as quickly as possible. Gathered up the menus and said “I’ll choose for you”. What he chose was delicious and we all told him he should write down what he gave us so we could have it next time we visited his restaurant.
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