‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead’ – Sydney Theatre Company

ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD – BY TOM STOPPARD
DIRECTED BY SIMON PHILLIPS
SYDNEY THEATRE COMPANY – SYDNEY THEATRE
10 AUGUST – 14 SEPTEMBER 2013

Sybil: We’re here at the Sydney Dance Lounge, because The Bar at the End of the Wharf is inexplicably closed at 11 o’clock on a Saturday night!? So, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, as a show, I didn’t know it. But, I knew the playwright and the concept of the show.
Lea: I’m exactly the same, I know Stoppard, plus we went into it with a healthy appreciation of the work, Tim Minchin and Toby Schmitz.
Sybil: As we may have mentioned before, Toby Schmitz is a bit of a theatre crush. I heard somebody say the other day that Toby Schmitz was an Australian Hugh Grant – all floppy hair and affectation. And I went “Oh I don’t think so” and then I saw the beginning of this and went “Oh yeah! I get it!”. *laughs all round* That was in my head at the start of the show, but I thought he really improved through the whole thing. So – first impressions: I love the set!
Lea: Yeah it’s cool.
Sybil: I thought that perspective – okay this is a bit wanky – but the perspective lines converging to nothing.
Lea: Like an infinite plane.
Sybil: Yes! There was definitely a Mobius strip type feel in the second half.
Lea: Yes, yes, yes. I liked that too.
Sybil: And they raked the stage more in the second half. So there was that whole staggery thing going on.
Lea: It was a kind of optical illusion.
Sybil: And I thought the costumes were amazing, the King and Queen, and Hamlet’s black Jacobean costume – so very, very stylised. This is what a traditional Shakespeare costume ‘should’ look like. So they were doing the whole, this is typical Shakespeare, very overly dramatic… So pretty much a two-hander. So talk to me about Tim and Toby?
Lea: I enjoyed their different styles. I found it a little difficult that Toby was so OTT at the start, and Tim was much more under-played, a bit more naturalistic. And he was playing ‘the fool’, even though they were both fools. But Tim was playing the loveable fool.
Sybil: Playing the less dominant one.
Lea: Yeah. The feminine to the masculine
Sybil: It’s one of Tim’s favourite plays. You know it was his idea?
Lea: Was it?
Sybil: Yeah, Tim actually pitched it to STC, to do it with Toby and Simon.
Lea: I enjoyed the word play in the first half.
Sybil: So clever.
Lea: A tennis match of minds.
Sybil: Toby at one point did this massive circular argument and it was so clever, because you were like ‘Yep, yep, uh-huh, yep that makes sense’ and then he came back to the beginning and you’re like…
Lea: “What just happened!?”
BOTH: *laughs*
Sybil: And that’s ALL Stoppard. You can’t do much about that, as long as you know, and you have the conviction, and you understand the text, and have a connection to it. You don’t have ‘to do’ a lot with it.
Lea: If I had to choose between who I preferred the style of getting into the text, it was Tim’s, because you went on that bewildered journey with him. But you had to have the bullish [pause] Guildenstern or Rosencrantz? Whichever one Toby was!
BOTH: *laughs*
Lea: You needed him to then enjoy Tim’s honest and naive bewilderment.
Sybil: Yeah.
Lea: They couldn’t have played it the same.
Sybil: Tim was Guildenstern and Toby was Rosencrantz. Hang on – I’m just going to check that in the program. I’m pretty sure that that was the case. Okay, Tim Minchin played… ahhh… Rosencrantz *embarrassed laughter*
Lea: Is that what you just said?
Sybil: No, no. I got it wrong. Toby Schmitz played Guildenstern! I thought it was the other way round!
Lea: Ahh the brilliance of Stoppard. In some ways it’s as tricky as seeing Shakespeare for the first time.  You almost want a repertory theatre company of these guys performing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead one night and then Hamlet the next.
Sybil: How awesome would that be? One of my favourite bits was when The Players came on and they went “Stop!” and then went “Boop boop boop boop”. *laughs all round* They were just silly and clever. Another awesome moment and possibly one of my favourite parts of the whole show was that section in the dark.
Lea: Yes I loved that too.
Sybil: I loved that.
Lea: The soundscape of them talking, and then the boat.
Sybil: And it was…
Lea: Magical.
Sybil: How often do you see, in a theatre filled with, what, 700 people, all of whom are absolutely quiet, listening, just listening. You can’t see anything. Just listening. I loved that.
Lea: It was really special.
Sybil: That’s a really brave directorial choice.
Lea: Overall I think that there were a few inconsistencies in tone with the direcion. Maybe I felt like some of the Shakespearean characters weren’t as stylised as each other. Whether Ophelia could have been less one-dimensional. I loved the guy, in The Players, in black, who played the uncle. His physicality was incredible. The one in black.
Sybil: The long legs. He was the one with the legs. Not our guy with the legs.
Lea: No.
Sybil: But he was the one with the legs who I thought might’ve been our guy with the legs.
Lea: He was dancer-esque.
Sybil: It was almost commedia. Yep.
Lea: There was a lot of commedia in The Players troupe.
Sybil: It was a show that was in our…
Lea: Sweet spot.
Sybil: It had actors that we really like, it’s in a theatre that we really like, it was a play that we didn’t know, but in a style that we both really appreciate. It was clever and we understood why it was clever, because we know Hamlet.
Lea: I think I’m going to go… 4.
Sybil: That’s what I would give it. It’s not as good as the 4.5 and 5 stars that we’ve done. We have a bit of a scope now – a range of theatre that we’ve seen.
Lea: It’s 4 out of 5 stars for everything it gives me. For the fact that I enjoyed the writing
Sybil: I enjoyed the production. I enjoyed the performances.
Lea: There were moments I did dip out of it.
Sybil: And that’s why it’s a 4, not a 5. I thought the set was interesting, I thought the costumes were fab. And I walked away having really enjoyed it. I thought that was a good night, compared to other nights we’ve had at the theatre this year.

IN SUMMARY

Sybil: So, what’s not to love? Great and clever show. Two of my favourite performers giving clever and brilliant performances. Fabulous set and costumes. Wonderful direction. Why didn’t I give it a higher score? That’s the standard of Sydney theatre, people!
Lea: This is the kind of show, that if you get it, you feel clever. Which is a funny kind of outcome, but that’s Stoppard. It was well worth the ride. Thanks Tim, Toby, Simon and Co.

WHERE WE HAD POST SHOW DRINKS: Sydney Dance Lounge.
OUR HANGOVER STATUS: Mild to lively.