Repertory Redux (Part II)

Night two.  Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead.  Same set.  Same actors.  Same seat in the audience.  Ready, set, go!

Immediately evident was the terrific interplay between Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.  While they had faded into the background during Hamlet, the actors' talents were on display here.  The banter, the word games, the wonderful contrast between the bi-polarity of Rosencrantz and the steady analytic thoughtfulness of Guildenstern:  the chemistry between them was as good as I have seen.  The Player was also well portrayed, but R&G were the rightful stars of the show.  Fortunately, the rest of the cast faded into background, including a Hamlet even more grossly overplayed than the night before.

As this was only the second time I have seen R&G live, I compared it to the previous performance in Oswego.  (See 3/9/14 post.)  The blocking between the two evenings was not matched as identically as it had been.  It was close, but there were noticeable variations.  Also, this production had two intermissions as the original script had.  With one intermission already concluded, I found the second one to be unnecessary for the audience.  While it was needed to reset the stage for the ship scene, it made the play feel long.  It's too bad that the first break was not condensed as had been done in Oswego, an inventive way of keeping the action moving while holding to Stoppard's text.

The first two acts were enjoyable due to the plentiful witty banter.  The third act, aboard the pirate ship, was well staged, but this audience member was beginning to lose interest.  Part was the lack of connection to the characters.  I felt a bit sorry when R&G ceased to exist, but the emotion was not there for any others.  They had not done enough to engender any sympathy or empathy. Part of the waning interest level was the length, which was advertised as 2 hours and 30 minutes including 30 minutes of intermissions but which was actually without them.  Roughly three hours, after three plus the previous night, is a lot of theatre for an audience member (never mind the actors!).

At the end of two nights, I still must applaud the company.  It was an admirable if uneven effort, but kudos are deserved for the attempt.  Perhaps the opportunity to see these two plays will pass my way again...but hopefully not for a couple of years!