THE N1(CHIGAN DA1L.Y
Sunday, January 25, 1970 I
THE MICHIGAN DAILY Sunday, January 25, 1970
theatre
The melancholy parody of R. & G.
SATURDAY and SUNDAY
MATINEES-ONE SHOW ONLY
BEGINS 2:00-OVER 5:00
DIAL
8-6416
SCAM US
TODAY AT
1 :20-3.45-
6'.15~-#:45
I
By DEBORAH LINDERMAN
Surely two of Shakespeare's
least memorable characters are
Rosencranz and Guildenstern,
and it is on this very account
that playwright Tom Stoppard
has taken to "immortalizing"
. them in Rosencranz and Guild-
enstern are Dead. The play is'
an interpretation of their life
and times, which overlap of
course with the life and times
of Hamlet the Dane.
Much of it emerges from the
single Joke that these two, who
have been appointed to dis-
ose of Hamlet, simply cannot
understand what all the com-
motion in Denmark is about.
They devote much time and ef-
fort to the task of finding out,
but lacking as they are in en-
dowment, go to their deaths in
befuddlement.
The idea of looking at things
from the point of view of R, and
G. is a comic and ingenious one,
and I cannot tell if it is a fault
of this production, or of the
play, that it wears thin. The
two, who keep reminding each
other that they "were sent for"
(many of Hamlet's lines a r e
given, anti-heroically, to them),
cannot seem to remember what
their mission is supposed to be.
They confuse their identities, R.
calling G. by his own name and
vice-versa. But the two are cast
to look immensely different,
and if this disparity is meant to
underscore the comedy of their
being interchangeable, it does
not..
Emnbued with a sense oaf duty,
they waver between the fear it
stirs in them and boredom, and
while away thehours byplaying
games. Rosencranz, flipping
coins, tosses heads over 90 times,
which provokes Guildenstern to
a dissertation on the laws- of
chance and probability. The play
is full of Elizabethan conun-
drums, paradoxes, and syllog-
isms, and R. and G. are greatest
at a question and answer game
where you lose points if you fail;
to answer a uestion with ano-
ther question.
All this is supposed to be a
bathos on the uneasy mood of
Hamlet. It is also intended, ap-
parently, to create a contem-
porary theater atmosphere in
the mode of Beckett or ones-
co, with the two main charact-
ers being compulsively involv-
ed in a situation whose mean-
ing is never clear to them.
On their way to Elsinbre they
encounter the troupe of play-
ers who will later catch the con-
science of the king., They wit-
ness or partake in many of the
actual scenes from Hamlet -
turned around by being lifted in-
to this play. Confronted with
Hamlet, himself, they try to fig-
ure out his mystifying comments
about "north-northwest". or
"hawk from a handsaw." See-
ing that Hamlet plainly will dis-
close nothing to them of what
is bothering him, they deter-
mine to question him directly.
Toward this end they put to
use their question and answer
games. Guildenstern plays Ham-
let and Rosencranz the inter-
rogator. Rosencranz says: "To
sum up, your father - whom
you love-dies. You'are his heir,
you come back to find that
hardly was the corpse cold be-
fore his young brother popped
onto his throne and into his
sheets thereby offending both
legal and natural practice. Now,
why exactly are you behaving
in this extraordinary manner?"
They can make little sense of
him "either inside or out," as
they repeat. And, as you c a n
see, the script begins to go
along as if it were a critique of
Hamlet.
Hamlet himself, who is styled
to look something like Robert
Montgomery and is just about
as frantic, at one point enters
with a dagger held high, on
the words ". . . or not to be"
(the first two of the solloque
being left off as if he were doing
a set piece) and stops there
looking deep in thought. But
this sort of simple dimension,
in which the satire is clear, is
missing from Hamlet's other
scenes. One is thus seduced into
measuring this play's caricature
of Hamlet in terms of the real
Hamlet and being, of course,
dissatisfied.
Director Jacqueline Britton is
likewise to be faulted for not
getting enough satire out of the
other people of the court-Clau-
dius and Gertrude et. al.-so
that too much of the burden of
the comedy falls to R. and G.
who are too inconsequential to
carry it for so long.
r
Their inconsequence develops
more than comic meaning at
the end, however, and the nicest
aspect of the play is not its
comedy but its pathos. Rosen-
cranz and Guildenstern, as you
know, are sent off to England
with Hamlet-who later returns
there for his rendenzvous with
doom-and they sense in their
dim way that before the voyage
is over they will certainly die.
Hamlet's immortal soliloquies
are thus converted 'into their
gloomy and fumbling efforts to
cope with the meaning of death.
When the time comes, they won-
der why they, who never really.
participated in the whole high-
style affair, must die, and their
death is a melancholy little epi-
sode.
4 -- O 0 . .A
"FAN Y HILL
"""""""
LET'S REACTIVATE GRAD COUNCIL
AT THE HOUSE
Mobilize for Social and
Intellectual Action.
MONDAY, JANUARY 26
7 P.M.
at THE HOUSE
1429 H ILL STREET
I'
.. _..O P~
john Church as Rosencrantz
,h ---R-PO-
pax eas1!RN ThysEA~hPUW
375 No. MAPLE RO ."7691300
Mnn. -Fy,--7:15-9:15s
SAT. & SUN--] :30-3:20-
5:15-7:15-9:15
"THE YEAR'S BEST COMEIt"
-SATURDAY REVIEW
A FRAV4KOVICHI PRODUCTION
FOR COLUMBIA RELEASE
®1m' 1&
:A
----r-- - -
:CREATIVE ARTS FESTIVAL
FEBRUARY U. OF MICH.
; 6-SAM FULLER, Film Director
CINEMA GUID, 7 P.M., ARCH. AUD. $1.25
8-LOUIS FALCO and Featured Dancers
MODERN DANCE, 8:30 P.M., HILL AUD. $2.75
12 & 13-THE CONCEPT! Off-Broadway Show
THURSDAY, 8 P.M., FRI., 7:15 & 10 P.M., TRUEBLOOD, $1.25
15-TOM WOLFE, Author of Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
LECTURE AND WORKSHOP, 3 P.M., TRUEBLOOD $1.25
1
Persons under 18 not admitted
From the country that
gave you"I,AWOMAN",
"INGA" and"I AM CURIOUS"
(YULLOW)
'FANNY HILL' Ys a "pomo-classic!*"
-ARCHER WINSTON.
"# there with sex and love
l-N.Y. Post
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19-JOHN BIGGERS, Black Artist
SLIDE LECTURE, 8:30 P.M., ANGELL HALL AUD. A $1.00
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FRI., JAN. 30
PROGRAM: Art .songs and arias: French, German,.
English, Scottish, -by Martini, Pergolesi,
Handel, Arne, Boyce, Haydn, Delius, Grieg,
Massenet, Offenbach, Aubert; and arias by
Rossini and Donizetti.
at 8 :30
JAZZ
FESTIVAL
Tickets:' $7.00 (out) -$650-$6O-
$5.00-$3.50-$2.50
PRESENTATIONS
IN RACKHAM AUDITORIUM
PROGRAM:W,.8
Quintet for Winds, Op. 43.......................................Neilsen
Introduction and Variations
for Flute and Piano, Op. 160..............................Schubert
Quintet in E-flat for Piano
and Winds, K. 452.......... ............. . . . ......Mozart
TICKETS AVAILABLE AT $5.00 AND $4.00 ONLY
and in HILL AUDITORIUM
JOAN SUTH ERLAND Soprano
with RICHARD BONYNGE, Pianist
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY, BURTON TOWER, ANN ARBOR
Office Hours: Mon. through Fri., 9 to 4:30; Sat., 9 to 12 (Tel. 665-3717)
(Also at Auditorium box office 1 1/2 hours before performance time)
20-MILES DAVIS and RON CARTER
21-CANNONBALL ADDERLEY,
WILLIAM FISCHER and ALVIN BATISTE
BOTH CONCERTS at 8:30 P.M., HILL AUD. $3.25
22-JOSEPH STRICK, Director of Ulysses
RUSHES FROM "TROPIC OF CANCER," 2 P.M., NAT. SCIENCE AUD. $1.50
U
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' .8f'S G' Sand NichoAlas Demetroules
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UNION-LEAGUE
/ IT rIV
SUN.-5:30, 7:15, 9:00
MON., TUES.--7:1.5, 9:00
95% of the Reading Population Reads Only 250 to
300 Words Per Minute or Less
VISIT EUROPE IN THE
1
KtE
DI
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NEW YEAR
NED'S
BOOKSTORE
Is Not Difficult to Learn
All those who completed courses held this past year at the Bell
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same or increased comprehension they h a d at their slower
YPSILAN TI
This new store carries more trade (non-text) books
than any other in the Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti area.
Unusual 1970Qecalendars,Athousands of paperbacks,
lots of them used, some hardbacks.
reading rates.
10% OFF
SEE HOW EASILY YOU (SAN:
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a' ' e
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AN OUTSTANDING BARGAIN (210)
The UAC TravelCommittee in association with the University of Michigan
can offer you the most reliable, most convenient charter flights to Europe
on the Michigan campus. We fly International Air Transit Association
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first class service (Plus there is a free, open barl). We drop you off in London
and return from the continent. This saves you the hassle and expense
(approx. $25) of returning to London for your return flight. Since UAC is a
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rebates. Last year one flight received $18,50/passenger as a rebate.
ON ALL BOOKS
Mon.-Thurs.-9-9; Fri.-9-6; Sa.-12:5:30
IT IS ALL AS GOOD AS IT SOUNDS
We think we're interesting-
e/ hnn you will
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STOP BY OR CALL FOR DATfES AND PRICES
El
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