Oh another show

Just before Richard and I went to Paris & Seville, we also went to see Rob Van Vuuren (and Alan Comitee - groan) in 'Rosenkranz and Guildenstern are Dead'.

Rosenkranz & Guildenstern are lesser known characters from Shakespear's Hamlet, made into a play by Tom Stoppard.

The play concerns the misadventures and musings of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two minor characters from William Shakespeare's Hamlet who are friends of the Prince, focusing on their actions while the events of Hamlet occur as background. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is structured as the inverse of Hamlet; the title characters are the leads, not minor players, and Hamlet himself has only a small part. The duo appears on stage here when they are off-stage in Shakespeare's play, with the exception of a few short scenes in which the dramatic events of both plays coincide. In Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are used by the king in an attempt to discover Hamlet's motives and to plot against him. Hamlet, however, mocks them derisively and outwits them, so that they, rather than he, are killed in the end. Thus, from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's perspective, the action in Hamlet is largely nonsensical.

I don't have much to say about it other than that we enjoyed it a lot. It is a clever play. As usual Rob was excellent and Alan Commitee was good in hos role too. The story was weird and wonderful and totally nonsensical at times, but it was quite gripping, and quite farcical.

The other actors were all UCT students and before the show they did some Hamlet variations, in various styles, from different points of view and at speed and then even backwards! It was very clever, and quite entertaining. They were very good.