Their playing of the “questions” game displays wonderful verbal dexterity and timing.įor his part, Haig grabs the juicy role of The Player by the scruff of the neck, prowling around the two friends with a sleazy grace and delivering the character’s overblown yet brilliant expositions on the thespian calling - and malaise - with appropriate gusto.Īnd while it’s often deemed that “emotion” didn’t find its way into Stoppard’s work till later, here’s a reminder that this play is heavy with pathos. Together, they handle the intricate dialogue with aplomb, allowing the jokes to fizz and the anxiety to register. The leads make a good team: Radcliffe as the dimmer, more light-hearted Rosencrantz, McGuire the intellectually pompous and agitated Guildenstern one bearded and dark-eyed, the other curly-haired with a toothy grin. This production has a great deal of fun with it all. Olivier Awards: 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' Breaks Record With 11 Nominations Though the affinity with Waiting for Godot is evident and well-documented, it could be said that Stoppard’s hapless, ill-fated Everyman heroes are even more unfortunate than Beckett’s Vladimir and Estragon, being victims of a dual crisis, both existential and meta-theatrical. The players also offer a key conduit as Stoppard weaves the action between his own text and Shakespeare’s, with Hamlet (Luke Mullins) and others also making fleeting appearances. Since the “excellent good friends” are employed to spy on the prince, they can only remain frustratingly in the dark as to his state of mind and intentions, thus questioning their own purpose - not just in Elsinore, but in life.Īs the pair mope, argue, play word games and toss coins to pass the time, their monotony is broken by The Player (David Haig) and his troupe, also bit players in Hamlet but with more import, rubbing salt in the wound of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s inconsequence. Rosencrantz (Radcliffe) and Guildenstern (Joshua McGuire) are the two minor characters from Hamlet who are brought center-stage, but consigned still to the margins of Shakespeare’s action as it now happens off stage. In essence, the play is pure Stoppard: a killer conceit, extrapolated through endlessly erudite and witty wordplay. When a character declares that “truth is only that which is taken to be true,” the sentiment could have been written today. The themes bubbling beneath Stoppard’s existential scenario - not least his reflections on life itself as acting, and on the elusive nature of truth - have great resonance in the age of Donald Trump, Brexit, fake news and a growing disconnect between politicians and what might be called their audience.
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