Yes, This Will Be On the Test

Writing, Reading, Laughing

Monday, April 21, 2014

R is for ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD


Welcome to Yes, This Will Be On the Test.
Waving to visitors, new followers, and fellow A to Z participants. I’m sending virtual hugs to you all for taking a moment to stop by.

I’ll be sharing my “take-aways.” All those snigglets, golden nuggets, and lessons learned from other creative sources.

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 In Act V, Scene II of Hamlet, an ambassador from England arrives to report "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead." 

These were Hamlet's two school chums who betrayed him to his stepfather/uncle in Shakespeare's play.

Tom Stoppard took those two inconsequential characters and gave them their own absurdist, existential story in 



The Hamlet timeline is going on concurrently with the journey of these two hapless philosophers with their twisted, yet truthful logic.

You may know Tom Stoppard as the author of the movie SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE.

Here are a few tidbits from 
ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD:

"The colours red, blue, and green are real. The color yellow is a mystical experience shared by everybody."

"A man talking sense to himself is no madder than a man talking nonsense not to himself."

"Look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else."

Rosencrantz - I don't believe it anyway.
Guildenstern - What?
Rosencrantz - England.
Guildenstern - Just a conspiracy of cartographers then?

TAKE AWAY - 
Characters who show up as a blip in one story may have their own tale worth telling.

Has anyone seen Rosencrantz and Guildenstern on stage or the movie version?

11 comments:

  1. Awesome how characters can have a small part in one show and then have it expanded into their own story. Because we all have a story to tell.

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  2. Oh, how awesome--re: that you're doing this A-Z thing!
    And no, sorry! I haven't seen that on stage or the movie version, but I'd like to.
    Also, I MISS YOU!!
    <3

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  3. I honestly haven't heard of this until now. I'd better correct that. :)

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  4. Stoppard is brilliant. So many of this plays have either put me in stitches or made me take some time to actually think. The Invention of Love, Indian Ink, Jumpers! Haven't seen Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in years.

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  5. I have not seen that one, but I remember when I had to put together the events listing for the Arts Commission in my 20s, I always had the hardest time making sure the names were spelled correctly!

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  6. I've never seen this. But I love how he took two minor characters, who we know nothing about, and gave them a life of their own.

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  7. Love this play. Love, love LOVE this play. It's one of my favorites of all time; the writing is just so brilliant. I've read it many times, and seen it on stage and seen the film. It's one of those "I wish I could write something half as brilliant as this someday" works.

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  8. I haven't seen it, but now I want to LOL

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  9. I read this play years ago and enjoyed it.

    I had no idea he also wrote Shakespeare in Love.

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