I just finished reading Tom Stoppard’s play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead in preparation for seeing Ghost Light Theatricals’ upcoming production of it. I’ve enjoyed what little Stoppard I’ve read and seen performed, namely Travesties and Arcadia, in productions by Seattle Public Theatre and UW Drama, respectively. Stoppard is wildly creative, managing to combine disparate works, events, and characters in elegant, lyrical, and frequently hilarious ways; for example, in Travesties he takes advantage of a historical coincidence to weave together the seemingly unconnected topics of Modernism, Dada, and Communism in a riotous, pun-filled comedy. In Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Stoppard offers a Waiting for Godot-inspired retelling of Hamlet from the perspective of two of its minor characters. (Guess which ones?) The humor is more somber and existential than the madcap fun of Travesties, but just as ingenious. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern was the winner of Ghost Light’s Battle of the Bard, a fund raiser that pitted different directors and casts performing scenes from several Shakespeare-related plays against one another in competition for the opportunity to do a full production in Ghost Light’s upcoming season. For Battle of the Bard, we were treated to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s exciting “pirate attack” scene, which involves circus-like hiding-in-barrels stunts as well as, of course, marauding pirates. It that performance was any indication, the full production is sure to be hilarious and high-energy. Well, the parts where they’re not just talking about death, at least.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead plays November 2-17, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30pm at the Velocity Chamber Theatre (915 E Pine–you know, across the street from KFC). Tickets are $12 or $10 for students and seniors. And if that’s too much for your cheapskate self, you can even go for free on November 3rd thanks to Live Theatre Week’s Free Night of Theatre. But if you go for free–buy a beer or a cookie or something. Fringe theatre is not exactly a cash cow.
