Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

Overview

Because Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is such a virtuosic piece of writing, it’s a pleasure to see it in any shape or form. It is doubly gratifying when it’s produced well. And Simon Phillips’ STC main stage production is very good. The comedy is set in the wings of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, where Rosencrantz and Guildenstern languish in ignorance as to what they’re doing there. Their confusion is a neat analogy for the absurdist position on what it is to be alive: we’re here against our will, if we have one, we meander about in the dark and then we die. For all its cleverness, the play is extremely moving, with passages that get right to the empty gut of existence.

Led by (real life) high school buddies Tim Minchin (Rosencrantz) and Toby Schmitz (Guildenstern), the production pulls off a uniquely Australian version of Stoppard’s humorous, so very English, brainy banter. Minchin has a theatrical naïveté standing next to the seasoned, adroit actor Schmitz. His artlessness is a rare thing and works well to characterise Rosencrantz as charming fool. Schmitz has taken a step sidewise from his usual Belvoir cool into comedic silliness with the frizzy hair of a 70s cop, with filthy mo’ to boot. Vocally he is limber and engaging, a far cry from the clipped, off-hand style he’s become known for.

The pair’s performance is matched by a group of excellent medievalists playing the characters in the parent play, Hamlet. Heather Mitchell as an unstuck Gertrude is wild. In fact the whole lot of them are pretty damn arresting in their luscious, medieval garb designed by Gabriela Tylesova. Claudio’s shoes in particular are a precious sight. The velveteen, curvaceous clam sandals make any utterance from Christopher Stollery extremely funny. Ewan Leslie as the Player is predictably outstanding and he commands the famous, ‘“We're actors — we're the opposite of people!” speech with a shame turned to rage that is thrilling to watch.

Tylesova’s bold set is a golden, raked stage with six ominous dark tunnels that act as wings to the stage of Hamlet proper.  A huge black funnel descending from the ceiling extrudes an upside down, leafless tree; an inversion of Beckett’s tree in Waiting for Godot. It’s a nice touch considering that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is not only an inversion of Hamlet, it’s also a roughing up of Waiting for Godot - a piece of existentialism with barrels of humour. If you have plans to see Waiting for Godot at the STC later in the year, this production is essential prior viewing.