Funny and Enlightening A Review of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

由Rosencrantz和Guildenstern的死，所写出的有趣和有启发性的一篇观后感。

On May the 25th, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, directed by Blanka Zizka and James Hakins, is played in the Wilma Theater. The running time of this play is 2014 to 2015. Keith Conallen acts as Rosencrantz and Jered Mclenigan acts as Cuildenstern. As Blanka stated, the play is originally wrote by Tom Stoppard who takes two minor characters, Rosencrant and Guildenstern, from Hamlet and make them become the new heroes in his own play. Hamlet is a tragedy known around the world. However, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead can be labeled as an irony comedy. This play is meant to amuse people as well as enlightening its audiences.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is a play about the absurd deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern who are sent by the King to escort Hamlet to England and end the life of his, but in contrast, are killed mistakenly. The play writer make Rosencrantz and Guildenstern be the representatives of modern ordinary people and to inform the audiences that life is filled with uncertainty and complexity, and what we are going to encounter is just like what Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have been through in the play.

In the play, R and G are throwing coins at first. The coin always turns to be the head up side. Then, R and G are told by Hamlet’s uncle and mother to escort Hamlet to England, though they are unwilling to go. They also have a letter with them wrote by Hamlet’s uncle. Out of curiosity, R and G finally read the letter secretly and know that the letter is to inform the English King to kill Hamlet. Pirates get on the boat and in chaos, Hamlet is disappeared. R and G show the Players the letter which they think is wrote about Hamlet’s death. However, it turns out that Hamlet has changed the letter and at that time, the letter is writing requiring the King to kill R and G. The two characters’ deaths are totally absurd and out of misunderstanding. R and G does nothing wrong and have no individual perspectives of what will happen in the future or of the world they are in. Their unawareness of their situation is ultimately the cause of their deaths.

The style of this play is funny and humorous. The humor of this play can be interpreted in its settings. The whole stage is filled with sunflowers and this setting leaves me deep impression. Sunflowers are the representatives of happiness or positive things, which in this situation, can create a bright atmosphere and let the audiences have good emotions quickly. Also, they light of the whole play is bright too in general, though there are some appropriate changes of softness and focuses along with the change of music. The costumes are in all well-designed and filled with the features of Renaissance era. In all, both the collocation of decorations on the stage, the music and light changes, and the costumes give audiences a authentic and comfortable feeling. And I do appreciate the two heroes acting. Their body language, the tone of lines and their facial expression coordinated with each other in a harmonious way which gets the audiences’ attention and mobilizes their emotions very well. As for the lines of actors, there are many parallelism sentences which can emphasize emotions perfectly. For instance, there is one line of Guildenstern, “As soon as we make a move they'll come pouring in from every side, shouting obscure instructions, confusing us with ridiculous remarks, messing us about from here to breakfast and getting our names wrong”. When Guildenstern said those words, his kept am elevated tone, and he moves his hand effectively so that his emotion could be showed efficiently. Especially, at the end of the play, when R and G know that it is them to be killed by the King, the frozen and surprised facial expressions of Keith and Jered successfully explained the characters’ hearts. As far as I am concerned, the directors of this play do show the play in a very authentic way since they keep a large portion of the play the same as the original one, for instance, many absurd dialogues which seem to be nonsense at first, but turn to be meaningful at the end. The most brilliant part of this play is the act of the Players. The Players act like God in the play, they telling R and G about their fate but foreboding people that there is nothing can be changed. R and G watch the Players’ informing show but cannot change their fate. The ingenious accordance is that the audiences are watching the play too, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. The director may not want the audiences to be like R and G, being unaware of their own fate and life, and thus want to use this accordance to enlighten people.