ʀᴏsᴇɴᴄʀᴀɴᴛᴢ ᴀɴᴅ ɢᴜɪʟᴅᴇɴsᴛᴇʀɴ ᴀʀᴇ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ʙʏ ᴛᴏᴍ sᴛᴏᴘᴘᴀʀᴅ

                10 - 15

╓═══════☆═══════╖

            Introduction

╙═══════☆═══════╜

regularly happens: well-intentioned art appreciator derides

contemporary/modern art for lack of obvious beauty

more sophisticated: more than surface to any piece, there

is also idea, perhaps commentary on art history & tradition

even more knowledgeable: will know the tradition and history

contained in a piece and why the critique inherent is "of its

time" 

one viewers sees basic picture of tomato soup can, another

sees mundane object elevated by technique: commentary

on modern design, influence of advertisement, fetishi-

zation of commodities, creation of American culture

requires fair amount of background and contextual information

to fully understand and appreciate the artist's vision

understanding doesn't mean you have to "like" it

often the case in other artistic fields, including contemporary

theater (ex; Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Are Dead.)

enhanced by knowing background about both its theatrical

commentary and the history of ideas with which it deals

most popular film: The Sound of Music

produced in a time of experimental, countercultural, highly

political productions

performed well at box offices in New York: Hello, Dolly!, How

to Succeed in Business without Really Trying

breakouts from counterculture: Hair, O, Calcultta (featured 

explicit sexual content performed by often nude actors)

Black Arts Movement promoted black writers' drama, often

in revolt against mainstream society

resulted in plays like Obie Award winning Dutchman, by

LeRoi Jones, and other works of "The Revolutionary

Theater"

other works with explicitly political undertones, or featured

humans in revolt, influenced by the "angry white men"

movement in England initiated by John Osborne's play

Look Back in Anger, published in 1956 (major influence

on young Tom Stoppard)

in 1960s, avant-garde and experimental theater thrived,

fueled by emergence of The Theater of the Absurd in 1950s

many seem to originate in a loopy sense of theatrics inherited

from new age psychology, psychedelic drug use, and a 

kind of street theater where "everything goes"

Rosencrantz not a perfect fit in this atmosphere

decidedly apolitical, uses Hamlet as its foundation

Stoppard's work influenced by strains of performance theory

and philosophy that helped define the revolution that

took place in literature in the 60s

both a culmination of historical and cultural forces, and an

original expression of such forces & movements

╓═══════☆═══════╖

         Overview of Tom

             Stoppard's

          Life and Work

╙═══════☆═══════╜

now called Sir Thomas Stoppard

born Tomáš Straussler in the city of Zinn, Czechoslovakia

on July 3, 1937

both parents, non practicing, secular Jews, but in peril when

Nazis came to control their region of Moravia

forward thinking head of the company Beta Shoes, where his

father worked as a physician, had been working to reassign

his Jewish employees

Eugene Straussler reassigned with his family to Singapore

on March 15, 1939 (day Germany invaded Czechoslovakia)

Singapore became dangerous when Japanese began extensive

bombing there in 1941

Tomáš, his mother, and brother relocated once more to India,

where his mother became manager of a Beta Shoe store

father died in a Japanese prisoner of war camp in Singapore

went to boarding school run by American Methodists in India

and grew comfortable with English

Tomáš's mother, Martha, met and married British major named

Kenneth Stoppard, who moved the family to England in 1946

adopted both brothers, and gave them his name

according to Stoppard biographer Paul Delaney, this is where 

he found his true home

In "Exit Tomáš Straussler, enter Sir Tom Stoppard" Delaney

quoted Stoppard as saying "As soon as we all landed up in

England, I knew I had found a home...I embraced the language

and the landscape."

Stoppard bored and uninterested in intellectual life as well as

literary works. left school at age of 17, having completed testing

for O-levels in Greek and Latin, roughly equivalent to a high 

school degree in the US

first job: journalist, working for the Western Daily Press in 

Bristol, England, where the rest of his family lived

ideas about journalism as a young man included a romantic

fantasy of adventurous life of the wartime journalist, as 

admitted in New York magazine interview in 1977

quote: "I wanted to be a great journalist. My first ambition was

to be lying on the floor of an African airport while machine gun

bullets zoomed over my typewriter."

journalistic fantasies did not come in fruition

assigned some tasks as a second string theater critic, so he

could frequently see productions at the Bristol Old Vic Theater

in 1948, Stoppard was on hand to see young Peter O'Toole as

Hamlet at the Old Vic. the production had a tremendous effect

on Stoppard, whose interest in theater and especially Shakespeare

was greatly increased.

London - hub of international theater activity

plays later categorized as belonging to the Theater of the Absurd,
such as Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot (opened in 1955)

Marxist bertolt Brecht creating works of The Epic Theater with
the Berliner Ensemble, which has lengthy visit to London

movement of "angry young men" initiated by the 1956 debut
of John Osbourne's play Look Back in Anger

in 1960, Stoppard quit his job at newspaper to become a writer

completed first play, A Walk on the Water, eventually produced
on television

work brought him to the attention of agent Kenneth Ewing

Stoppard reviewed London magazine called Scene and writing
unproduced scripts for television/one act plays for BBC radio

in 1963, Ewing mused that there might be a potential in a play
about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern after seeing Hamlet

the king they travel to see in England might as well be another
Shakespearean character, King Lear

in 1964 he received Ford Foundation grant to live in Berlin,
where he produced forerunner to his most famous play, a one
act treatment written in verse called Rosencrantz and
Guildernstern Meet King Lear

in the play, the Player and Hamlet exchange identities on a 
ship bound to England captured by pirates

the Player returns to Denmark to fulfill Hamlet's role for the
rest of the play

this work offers a preview of Stoppard's concern with identity
as performative and unstable

reworked his play about the two minor characters in Hamlet,
in 1966, after being rejected by Royal Shakespeare Company
and Royal Court Theatre, sent it to Oxford Playhouse

they offered it to university undergraduates looking for something
to perform at Edinburgh Festival Fringe, for mixed reviews

reviewer from The Observer, Ronald Bryden wrote the play was
"an erudite comedy, punning, fat fetched, leaping from depth to
dizziness...the most brilliant debut"

came to the attention of influential critic Kenneth Tynan, who was 
literary manager for National Theatre in London, offered to 
produce the play at the National Theatre

received rave reviews in London in April of 1967. first National
Theatre production to be transferred to New York

beginning in 1964, with Walk on the Water, Stoppard has imposing
bibliography, with short and long plays, translations of other 
playwrights like Anton Chekhov and Luigi Pirandello, radio plays,
TV plays, screenplays for films, one novelo

three works critic consider as his "major" work

Jumper - unrestrained murder mystery, some of the murders are
result of academic papers admitting to existence of higher being

title taken from acrobatic troupe of radically liberal university dons

Travesty - partially imagines meeting in the neutral Swiss city of 
Zurich of 3 wildly disparate thinkers, Modernist James Joyce,
Dadaist Tristan Tzara, Communist leader Vladmir Lenin

stage drama is core of this play, which revolves around a production
of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest that was
produced by Joyce in Zurich in 1918

Arcadia - regarded by many as Stoppard's mature masterpiece,
shifts between 1809 (with the life of a precocious young girl genius
who predicts many of the 20th century's most astonishing math
discoveries) and the present (at the time of first performance, 1993)
where a pair of scholars live in the same house as the young genius
and discover elements of the past

primary link between these plays is constant attention to identity
and performance, concern with philosophical discourse
that often touches on identity of human's place in the world, a
manic and antic imagination, and (especially in Travesty, the
meta-theatrical)

of the 46 titles for which he received credit as a writer, among
the most notable are Brazil (co-wrote with Terry Gilliam, of 
Monty Python fame), Empire of the Sun (directed by Steven
Spielburg), The Russia House (adaptation of a John Le Carre
novel, starring Sean Connery), Shakespeare in Love (co-written 
with Marc Norman, Anna Karenina adaptation in which Keira
Knightley plays title role), Tulip Fever (recent adaptation of a novel
by Deborah Moggach)

had major role in bringing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are
Dead to film in 1990

╓═══════☆═══════╖

    Origin of Rosencrantz

      and Guildernstern in

    Shakespeare's Hamlet

╙═══════☆═══════╜

primary action of Hamlet concerns Hamlet, a Danish prince who
is charged by the ghost of his own father with getting revenge
on dead King Hamlet's brother Claudius, who had murdered him, 
taken both his crown and his wide

Hamlet, reluctant to act on the words of a ghost, engages in endless
deferral of action, until he is in complete certainty about the truth of
his father's fate.

Part of Hamlet's technique is to feign madness so he can catch 
other characters unprepared.

Hamlet decides to stage a play which the suspected crime of
his uncle is revealed onstage to "catch the conscience of the 
king"

Claudius tries to poison Hamlet, but his queen Gertrude drinks 
the poison herself. Hamlet then struck b the poisoned tip of
the sword of his friend Laertes, who is also poisoned with the
same blade, which Hamlet then uses against the king

a noble Norwegian, Fortinbras, ascends to the Danish throne

Rosencrantz and Guildernstern are old school friends of Hamlet,
summoned by King Claudius and Queen Gertrude to use their
closeness to learn why Hamlet has been behaving weirdly

Claudius also interested in finding out what Hamlet knows about
King Hamlet's death

appearances in Hamlet are brief, off stage deaths precede climax

Stoppard relocates Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to center stage
in the revision of Hamlet

the Player - head of the theater troupe that appears in Hamlet to
perform an adulterated version of The Murder of Gonzago, has
a major voice in Rosencrantz

endows title characters with more distinct personalities, fleshed 
out whenever they're alone together on stage with the Player

personalities taken together might be called inquisitive as well
as clueless, yearning for significance and observant

Guil - deeply immersed in conventional philosophical speculation

Ros - reacts without reflection, more scattered

at times quite distinct from each other, at other times are an
indistinguishable couple

Hamlet Act 2, scene 2 - Ros and Guil summon by King & Queen

in Stoppard's play, close relationship to Hamlet not as apparent,
one way Stoppard complicates and comments on source material

opening tableau, Ros and Guil speculate on their reality, where a 
coin flip come up heads 90 times in a row

play takes turn when reality of Hamlet and its characters are introduced

lighting change introduces Hamlet's love interest, Ophelia

stage directions describe dumbshow, Ros and Guil try to leave, but
followed by entrance of King and Queen

the pair are trapped in action and Shakespeare's script

sight gag, physical comedy, but more to it than slapstick

Ros and Guil indistinguishable for reader, King and Queen can't 
tell them apart

Queen later given directions by Stoppard that allows her a 
general address that brooks no confusion

"Good (fractional suspense) gentlemen" and "they both bow"

as Hamlet takes over action in Rosencrantz, language changes
to Shakespearean with more formality, bewilders reader & characters

as players from Hamlet exeunt (leave stage), Ros and Guil's 
identity becomes overwhelming for them

commentary on: centrality of language in ordering one's existence,
alienation of common person from exalted language (ex: Shakespeare),
or alienated state of Ros and Guil on stage, still quite "at sea"

Ros and Guil unable to summon up memories of childhood, youth,
love, or sports due to their existence as stage characters

earliest memory came from the morning when King summoned for them

lengthy quotations from Shakespeare indicate scripted nature of
Ros and Guil's actions, also serve to draw parallels between 
Shakespeare's commentary on theater and the leader of Tragedians,
who appear as the player

in Hamlet Act 2, Scene 2,  lengthy interaction between Hamlet, Ros
and Guil from lines 217 to 529

total domination of Ros and Guil from Hamlet's "madness"

Hamlet discovers Ros and Guil are at service of Claudius, has a discourse
on theater with Polonius (one of Claudius's lords and father of Ophelia)

audience almost forgets that Ros and Guil are on stage

somewhat altered account of the play commissioned by Hamlet,
"The Murder of Gonzago" and stylized performance of shipboard 
letter switch that seals the fate of Ros and Guil

what is particularly significant to the modern reader is that the two
main characters always seem out of it, trying to understand the 
context, how they might escape the trap of scripts, and how they
might choose to live otherwise