Rosencrantz and Guildenstern - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

By Tom Stoppard

Helen WoodSlide2

Sneak Peek…

https://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EwS_JU8Eng

Slide3

Synopsis

Set in the context of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Hamlet’s childhood friends set upon him by Claudius and Gertrude.

Stoppard’s Play focuses on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern who retell and contemplate their perspective and experience of events of Hamlet.

Excerpts of Shakespeare’s text are used but the language switches from Shakespearian to modern language.

Neither Rosencrantz or Guildenstern know exactly why they are there or what their purpose is. The tasks they are given overwhelm them, resulting in them constantly asking questions about life, empiricism, and death.

The duo witness the dress rehearsal of ‘The Murder of Gonzago’ by The Player and his troupe, becoming more confused about their situation.

As the story of Hamlet develops, the duo find themselves on a boat with Hamlet and a letter bound for England. The letter contains Hamlet’s death sentence. Hamlet discovers this and switches

i

t for another executing them both.

The boat is attacked by pirates and in the skirmish the duo loose Hamlet but discover the switched letter. They resign themselves mournfully to their fate and the play ends with Horatio’s final speech, which includes the play’s title line, to bring the curtain down.Slide4

Context – Tom Stoppard

Born in July 1937 – Born in Czechoslovakia - WWII Greatly effected life – fled to Singapore in 1939, then fled to India, Father died on the way to being reunited with them.

After War – Mother remarried to British Kenneth Stoppard – Tom only 8 years old when came to England – but fully emerged himself into English culture – ceased to speak Czech

D

idn’t go into university – 17 years left school – Journalist, reviewing plays etc. for papers,

Western Daily Press

and

Bristol Evening World

.

1962 – became a theatre critic for

Scene

magazine in London. Also started writing plays for

T

V and Radio

Wrote most famous play when he was 26 then an aspiring screenwriter and playwright

His Agent saw a production of Hamlet at the National – Agent, in a taxi with Stoppard, made a joke about Stoppard writing about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern – Idea would be amusing – Stoppard pursued this

Still writing and actively involved with the productions of his work at the age of 79Slide5

The Play’s History

Draft Version of one act play, ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Meet King Lear’, written in 1964

1966 - Stoppard wrote and expanded into three acts which became the final version we use today.

First Premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1966

First World premiere Performance at The Old Vic, 1967, and then moved to its home at The National Theatre in April 1967

Debut on Broadway - 1968

Stoppard’s most famous play – Won Evening Standard’s Award for

Most Promising Playwright

and

Best Play

in 1967 – Won a Tony Award for

Best Play

in 1968Slide6

Billington – On Stoppard and Post War Drama

“English post-war drama had a resistance to intellectual concepts: you started with character, whereas Stoppard starts with an idea…….delighting in language and the illusions of theatre”Slide7

Main Characters

Rosencrantz – Childhood friend to Hamlet – more confused of the two, easily entertained and pleased, i.e. flipping coins – takes things face on and tries to cheer Guildenstern up by playing easy bets – but still is terrified at the though of his own morality - Sensitive

Guildenstern – Childhood friend to Hamlet – Questions life a lot – More philosophical of the two – More anxious and desperately wants to understand their situation and tries to reason – Can cause sudden bursts of anger, i.e. Act III with The Player - But still able to show compassion and understanding, values Rosencrantz more than he lets on.

The Player – Leader of the band of Travelling Players, asked by Hamlet to deliver the reworded speech at ‘The Murder of Gonzago’ – An ambiguous figure – Wise and Witty – Teases the duo as seems to have an air of mastery over their experiences i.e. anticipating their deaths – Shady, would happily sell or gamble his troupe’s bodies (the unwinnable bet) – A ringmaster.Slide8

Main Themes

Question of Life and Death

The Incomprehensibility of the World – Chances, Gambling, Luck vs Reason and Logic

The Difficulty of Making Meaningful Choices

Relationship Between Reality and The Stage

Identity – Who are they? Every man?

Word Play – Ordering and Confusion of WordsSlide9

Critical Thought – Normand Berlin

“In

the act of seeing a stage play, which moves in time, we are in a pre-critical state, fully and actively engaged in the play's events. When the play is over, then we become critics, seeing the

play as

a structural unity and, in fact, able to function as critics only because the play has stopped

moving. In

the act of seeing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, however, our critical faculty is not subdued. We are always observing the characters and are not ourselves participating. We know the results of the action because we know Hamlet, so that all our references are backward. Not witnessing a movement in time, we are forced to contemplate the frozen state, the status-quo, of the characters who carry their Shakespearean fates with them. It is during Stoppard's play that we function as critics, just as Stoppard, through his characters, functions as critic within the play. It is precisely this critical stance of Stoppard, of his characters, and of his audience that allows me to attach the label "

theater

of criticism" to the play, thereby specifying what I believe to be Stoppard's distinctiveness as a modern dramatist

.”Slide10

Original 1967 Production

Folger Theatre ProductionSlide11

NIU ProductionSlide12

Current Production

2017 – 50

th

Anniversary Production

Staring – Daniel Radcliffe as Rosencrantz and Joshua McGuire as Guildenstern – With David Haig as The Player

National Theatre Production performed at the Old Vic

Outstanding Reviews – 4 StarsSlide13

Extract p.33-36 – Act1

Extract p.50-51 – Act

2 - Clip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t5UTLkfoUs

50 Years of the National Theatre Anniversary Extract Performance 2013

Benedict Cumberbatch as Rosencrantz

Kobna Hold

Brook-Smith as Guildenstern

Extract p.91-93 – Act 3

ExtractsSlide14

BibliographyBerlin, Normand,

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead: Theatre of Criticism

, Modern Drama, Volume 16, Number 3-4, University

of Toronto, 1973,

http://

0-muse.jhu.edu.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/article/496512/pdf

, p.271

Independent Article

- March 2017-

http://

www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/rosencrantz-and-guildenstern-tom-stoppard-play-daniel-radcliffe-old-vic-national-theatre-a7627611.html

Guardian Review Articles – March 2017

https://

www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/mar/08/rosencrantz-and-guildenstern-are-dead-review-daniel-radcliffe-stoppard-old-vic-london

https://

www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/mar/12/rosencrantz-and-guildenstern-are-dead-review-daniel-radcliffe-great-double-act

Billington Quote – Guardian

Article – September 2008 -

https://

www.theguardian.com/stage/2008/sep/06/stoppard.theatre