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Christopher's Reviews > Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
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My brain is a bad actor.
I know it's a bad actor because I read this play and the performance it gave totally fell flat. It messed up all the punchlines. Often it had to go back to read parts that it misread. It even got bored during the middle part and totally phoned in the performance of the first half of the third act. It totally ruined this play for me with its terrible one-note performance. Stupid, stupid brain.
Luckily for me, Tom Stoppard directed a moving pictures version of his play, starring the magnificent Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, and Richard Dreyfuss, and it's available on Netflix. So after I finished reading this play, bewilderedly wondering what about it I should have liked, I pressed play on my computing device. What I saw before me on the screen was a hilarious, creative, meta, terribly intriguing story of two lovable weirdos romping through the world of Hamlet. The tedious coin-flipping scene so dully enacted by my brain was brought to glorious life by the good Sirs Oldman and Roth.
In short, I was just too stupid to see the brilliance of this play simply by reading it. But after seeing the movie, I was able to go back to the written work and appreciate some excerpts with gusto. Your brain is probably a better actor than mine, but if you have any doubts regarding its talents, I'd suggest watching the movie first. That's something I would almost never recommend, but after all, it is a play, something meant to be acted out in front of you rather than just inside that noggin of yours.
I know it's a bad actor because I read this play and the performance it gave totally fell flat. It messed up all the punchlines. Often it had to go back to read parts that it misread. It even got bored during the middle part and totally phoned in the performance of the first half of the third act. It totally ruined this play for me with its terrible one-note performance. Stupid, stupid brain.
Luckily for me, Tom Stoppard directed a moving pictures version of his play, starring the magnificent Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, and Richard Dreyfuss, and it's available on Netflix. So after I finished reading this play, bewilderedly wondering what about it I should have liked, I pressed play on my computing device. What I saw before me on the screen was a hilarious, creative, meta, terribly intriguing story of two lovable weirdos romping through the world of Hamlet. The tedious coin-flipping scene so dully enacted by my brain was brought to glorious life by the good Sirs Oldman and Roth.
In short, I was just too stupid to see the brilliance of this play simply by reading it. But after seeing the movie, I was able to go back to the written work and appreciate some excerpts with gusto. Your brain is probably a better actor than mine, but if you have any doubts regarding its talents, I'd suggest watching the movie first. That's something I would almost never recommend, but after all, it is a play, something meant to be acted out in front of you rather than just inside that noggin of yours.
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Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
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Reading Progress
February 3, 2014
–
Started Reading
February 3, 2014
– Shelved
February 3, 2014
– Shelved as:
20th-century
February 3, 2014
– Shelved as:
british
February 3, 2014
– Shelved as:
drama
February 4, 2014
–
Finished Reading
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Steve
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Feb 05, 2014 02:48PM
I think I'll try your same approach, Christopher -- the play followed by the movie. My brain isn't likely to do any better, especially compared to actors with the chops of Oldman and Roth.
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yay! I have to admit that I saw the film first...then promptly read it and memorized the "death in a box" bit. I hadn't thought about it, but certainly having said thesbians act it out for me in my brain made the play for me, too.
Good idea! I read most of it aloud to try to get into it properly, but I had the same problem as you. I'll have to check out the movie now as well.
