Play’s theme about mortality lets characters learn about life
In “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” two bewildered minor characters in “Hamlet” become central figures.
Gallery Players is taking a fresh look at Tom Stoppard’s darkly comic 1967 play with a 50th anniversary production, which continues through Sunday at the Jewish Community Center.
“Stoppard takes the minor roles and expands on them to create almost a ‘Twilight Zone’ scenario where the two men don’t know where they are or how they got there,” director Nancy Shelton Williams said.
“Their desire and passion is to find out why they’re there and determine their purpose. ... In my vision of the play, I believe they’re dead, in a type of purgatory, and don’t know they’re dead.”
In “Hamlet,” Rosencrantz and Guildenstern — courtiers and friends of Hamlet from their university years — are asked by the king and queen to spy on their friend to figure out his strange behavior.
Familiarity with Shakespeare isn’t necessary to appreciate Stoppard’s absurdist tragicomedy, Shelton Williams said.
“But the snippets of Shakespeare will resonate more with those familiar with ‘Hamlet’ and help theatergoers understand more about the relationships,” she said.
The two-act play, which marked the Broadway debut of the British playwright, was the first of four Stoppard works (including “Travesties,” “The Real Thing” and “The Coast of Utopia”) to win a Tony Award for best play.
“His plays are less about action and more about thoughts and relationships, conveyed through beautiful language,” Shelton
Williams said.
Her directorial approach reimagines the title characters as women in disguise.
Elizabeth Girvin plays Rosencrantz opposite Kate Willis as Guildenstern.
“Rosencrantz is almost childlike, fairly resilient and very eager and excited about everything in the world,” Girvin said.
“The funniest part is you have two protagonists who have no idea what’s going on. A lot of the humor comes from two people trapped in a space, while others enter and exit the space. But they never leave it.”
As the play progresses, their relationship changes.
“At the start, Guildenstern sees himself as the wise big brother, and Rosencrantz looks up to him,” Girvin said.
“Later, Guildenstern starts to appreciate Rosencrantz for his humor and who he is.”
This isn’t Girvin’s first gender-reversed role, having played two men this past summer in the Actors’ Theatre of Columbus production of “Julius Caesar.”
But her role as Rosencrantz is trickier, she said, because it’s gender-fluid.
“When it’s just the two of us, we’re female. But when we travel, we have to be disguised as men,” Girvin said.
“To signal when I’m switching into the male character, I’ll drop my voice, stand with my feet apart and keep a more rigid profile.”
Her character’s progression reflects Stoppard’s themes.
“Stoppard is showing us basic human nature ... human stubbornness but also human growth, in eventually being able to face reality,” Girvin said.
The Player (Scott Willis) is pivotal to the director’s interpretation.
“The Player is the puppet master, the one calling the shots,” Willis said.
“Because she’s setting the play in purgatory, with the Player as the leader, he runs everything and knows everything that happens from beginning to end. In the normal version of the play, the Player moves people along, but not to the same degree.”
Willis, whose father died in April, relates deeply to the play’s themes of reality, illusion, fate and mortality.
“While the play’s tone is comical and uplifting, death is talked about constantly,” said Willis, 51.
“The Player teaches Rosencrantz and Guildenstern about death so they can learn to move on. ... It prompts me to look at my life and how I deal with death.”