BRATTLEBORO — The Brattleboro Union High School Players will present Tom Stoppard's absurd comedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead on Friday, Oct. 18, and Saturday, Oct. 19, at 7 p.m. in the BUHS Auditorium. Admission is $5 at the door.
This is a play where nothing happens, but it happens elaborately. It is a “clever, quirky, ingeniously crafted conundrum,” according to a news release, about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two non-entities in Shakespeare's Hamlet.
Pawns in an elaborate chess match they don't know how to play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two schoolmates of the disturbed Danish prince who are ordered to the court of Elsinore, first to ferret out the reason for their friend's apparent madness and then to escort him to England where, unbeknown to them, he is to be put to death.
In Stoppard's play, these two incidental characters become the focal point of the play, working at right angles to the original Hamlet.
Ignored and confused, the two slobs spend their time wondering what it's all about, tossing coins, playing word games, indulging in shallow philosophy, and griping about the hollowness of it all. Never allowed to leave the stage, they are confused, at sea, and in search of some direction that only arrives at the end, when the lights finally come down.
Tightly plotted and cleverly worded with epigrams, puns, and double-entendres, Stoppard earns our attention with considerable intellectual juggling.
Part Shakespeare, part Waiting for Godot, with a dash of Laurel and Hardy comic antics, the play entertains while raising deep philosophical questions about who we are and why we are here.
The production is directed by Robert Kramsky and features Gale Allen, Sarah Gordon-Macey, Raina Armour-Jones, Meghan Frost-Clark, Gavin Holloway, Zach Thomas, and Amar Vargas. It is stage managed by David Scott.