Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

You know, the, the Macbeth turn with the-

Oh, oh, oh, you're talking about, um, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead?

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, yes.

It, it reminded me very much of that scene in question tennis where you-

Which is Hamlet, not-

Yeah, yeah

... like, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and was also a famous fixer in Hollywood with, like-

Yeah

...

And you are going to, uh, also be doing one of my favorite Stoppard plays of all time.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

We did, um, he passed away last November.

Yes, that's right.

What was amazing, we d- we, we did his memorial, uh, earlier in this year.

Um, and it was a real honor to do it, and just to re- be reminded about how brilliant his words are, and hearing actors and stuff.

Anyway, so it's a real, I'm really, really glad we're doing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

I am, too.

Exactly.

It doesn't include Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

It doesn't include Akira Kurosawa, The Bad Sleep Well, or even Robert Eggers' recent Viking epic, The Northman.

Those are all Hamlet.

Definitely someone on the up.

It's also Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which is a show that completely took me by surprise.

I did not expect to see this one.

But for, uh, SNL fans, George Fouracres basically played Keir Starmer, has been playing Keir Starmer in SNL UK, and was like, I don't know if you saw the Angry Mario sketch that he did with, uh-

Um, and now he is joining Maran Wiswan in that new production, uh, of the Tom Stoppard play, uh, so it's 60 years on from its first London production, which is pretty exciting.

Um, and I think those two between them, you know, there's such comedy in that play, and it needs the right people in it to do it.

I've never seen Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

It's never done here.

Burning Coal and Raleigh Little Theater are doing something in common this fall to open, uh, burning Coal season and to continue Raleigh Little theater Season, and that is we are each producing a play by the same playwright.

Uh, in the case of Raleigh Little Theater, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

Uh, and in the case of Burning Coal, uh, Tom Stoppard's play Travesties.

So here, um, uh, to talk about, uh, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and Travesties are Michelle Weathers, who is the artistic director of Raleigh Little Theater, and her director for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Jerry Lynn Schulke, along with, uh, the director for Burning Cold's production of, uh, Travesties, and that is Flora Baer.

And as I said, I'm Jerry Davis.

I'm the Artistic Director of Burning Coal, so I'm, uh, I'm producing the production of Travesties.

All right

...

You can go check out Zero to Well Read.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead are in the feed right now.

We had a whale of a time.

I love Tom Stoppard.

You can go check out Zero to Well Read.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead are in the feed right now.

We had a whale of a time.

I love Tom Stoppard.

And I'm Rebecca Schinsky.

This week it is shenanigans all around as we explore Tom Stoppard's absurdist Hamlet spinoff, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, on the occasion of its 60th anniversary.

A big day, especially for you, Jeff.

[laughs]

Like Stoppard has fed into letting us all just interpret this play for ourselves.

He's refused to validate any particular reading of it.

At the 50th anniversary, he said for 50 years now on being asked what Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is about, I have stood pat on, quote, it's about two courtiers at Elsinore.[laughs] I wasn't insensitive to being, or I wasn't insensitive to more suggestive possibilities, but I took the view that every subjective response had its own validity.

No interpretations endorsed, none denied.