Word: hamlet
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Descending en masse from their hamlet, the Cornellians transform the tranquil arena into an emotional tinderbox. They slip fish—hidden underneath their clothes—past security guards. When Cornell scores, the fans hoist the putrid trout onto the playing surface, then serenade the Crimson faithful with a rendition of “Far Above Cayuga’s Waters...
...couldn’t hold its audience through one intermission, let alone two. But Friday night’s audience was happy to sit through all three acts of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, director Blocker’s rollicking production of Tom Stoppard’s spin on Hamlet. I haven’t seen many Mainstages at Harvard that have been worth recommending, but I’m pleased to recommend this...
Stoppard’s heroes are the doomed, thick-headed duo of the play’s title. Though they are only minor characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Stoppard allows Rosencrantz (Bobby A. Hodgson ’05) and Guildenstern (Geordie F. Broadwater ’04) to show the events in and around the play from their own shared perspective. They’re hard to tell apart; you could say that Guildenstern is the smart one, but that wouldn’t be saying much. They’re both incredibly dense, easily confused, and utterly...
It’s hilarious to watch the two men impotently muddle around with their pea-sized brains; it’s Abbott and Costello Meet Hamlet, except that neither man has any idea who’s on first. Broadwater’s Guildenstern is earnest and restless, always yammering questions and never getting answers. Hodgson’s Rosencrantz is a layabout twit, his perpetually gaping mouth suggesting a severely inbred bloodline. It is Stoppard’s genius to make these idiots the carriers of a profound existential dread; in Stoppard’s hands, Rosencrantz...
...them talk with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern for long enough to make an impression. Yet all of the actors give the sense that there are unspoken depths to their characters—a crucial skill, considering that their characters have far more space to themselves in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Polonius (Tim M. Marrinan ’06) is suitably obsequious, Ophelia (Andrea M. Spillmann ’07) is weepy when weepiness is called for, and a moody Hamlet (Jeremy R. Funke ’04-’05) stands around muttering soliloquies too quietly for our heroes...