Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead
Fringe festivals are extraordinary events in the variety of entertainments on offer, from the silly, the experimental and strange to the ambitious. I can embrace them all, well almost all, I do sometimes despair at the very silly. But what I really enjoy is the ambitious, and few directors are as ambitious as the talented Sam Chittenden, a theatre maker who writes and directs.
For this year’s fringe she has chose to tackle a Tom Stoppard play written over five decades ago and first seen at Edinburgh Fringe back in 1966. Stoppard is a master wordsmith, he creates dense and complex texts, poses challenging ideas, questions and demands an audience’s full and concentrated attention. He can deliver comedy of course, but it comes as a side dish to the thrust of his work. I’ve seen this play before and enjoyed it, loved Jumpers and nodded off to Arcadia. It’s serious stuff for sure but at times his intellectual game playing can leave me cold.
Chittenden has taken R&G and created a pared down but essentially loyal version that is both challenging but equally entertaining. The heart is still there but it is a much easier watch.
Her work here is great but would be as nothing had she not cast an excellent company of four talented actors who, with the assistance of a few glove puppets and dummies, take on all of the roles, yes the whole cast, or at least those deemed neccessary in this version. It’s a brave move but one that for the most part works well.
At the core we have Ben Baeza as Rosencrantz and Morgan Corby as Guildenstern, the two student friends of Hamlet, called to the Danish court to… well why are they there? And really that question is the centre of this play, why? This is very fine playing from two very talented local actors. They deliver Stoppard’s dense text with refreshing clarity, the words ringing out above the physical buffoonery. Baeza delivers Rosencrantz as the more challenged of the two, blustering and yet fragile. Croby’s Guildenstern is sharp, confident with a definite air of intellectual arrogance and misguided superiority. They play together so well.
Nancy Logan’s gurning Alfred is a delight, silently commanding and then she is imperious as Gertrude and bewildered and bewildering as Hamlet. Taking on so many roles throughout is challenging for any actor but she pulls it off.
Ross Gurney-Randall once again proves his talent as an actor. I’ve seen him in so many roles over my time in Brighton but this outing shows his versatility and his comedic talents. His player is so wonderfully crafted, elements of the master from Harwood’s The Dresser, pompous, opinionated and very funny.
What though is most impressive about this whole production is, that in a world of 55 minute fringe shows, this is a full on work of theatre, playing to a large audience in a space that is not a conventional theatre but presents as Real Theatre with that capital R and T. If you missed it here then it goes on to London (Drayton Arms 10-14 June), Hastings and Smallhythe in Kent.
This is the real thing and, whilst sitting proud in our fringe, why on earth is this kind of locally produced work not being commissioned by Brighton Festival as a celebration of home grown talent?
Andrew Kay
23 May
The Friend’s Meeting House @ Brighton Fringe
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