Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead: Cardinal Rep

"We're doomed from the start..." said Christopher Heady to Connect Savannah in the preview article to Cardinal Rep's February 2009 production of Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Though these words are not completely accurate in regards to Cardinal Rep's latest offering, they do hold an uncomfortable level of resonance.

The play, considered by many to be Stoppard's masterwork in a long and substantial career, centers around two benighted characters from the fringe of Shakespeare's masterwork, Hamlet. Originally charged by Claudius to find out Hamlet's intentions, and then to urge him in his past-times... they then find themselves carrying a letter to the King of England orderign Hamlet's execution. The letter is swapped out for one ordering their own execution. Yet throughout all of this, the machinations of the court remain outside of their control and understanding.

And it is here that the primary rub of this production comes into play, the idea of understanding. Mr. Stoppard's existential opus is a difficult and finicky show to pull off. Centered on the two doomed apparats, Rosencrantz (Christopher Soucy) and Guildenstern (Christopher John Heady) never graps what is happening to them. However, when one plays a lack of understanding it is all the more vital that the impression is given that the actors themselves do understand the stakes of their plight, lest the audience cease to care. Unfortunately, it never becomes clear that there is a real grasp of the show's fairly deep meaning.

Mr. Heady, as the generally more enlightened Guildenstern, has unfortunately found himself in a position that plays against his greatest strengths. Unforgetably entertaining and skilled in clowning, as per his performance of Sgt. Towser in Catch-22, he lacks oomph required to carry the "straight-man" in a comic duo. Interestingly, Abbott & Costello split their revenues not 50/50, but instead 60/40... with 60% going to Bud Abbott, the "straight man." Such divisions were considered natural, as it is generally acknowledged to be much harder to find a straight man to properly power a comic duo. And unfortunately, without its straight man, the duo of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern lacks the required dynamism to sustain this long and difficult show.

If the primary duo lacks needed vitality, the Player (Ryan McCurdy) and Tragedians charge the show with Pinteresque menace. Unfortunately, there are times where one finds oneself echoing Rosencrantz's statement of, "Somebody interesting might come on." Mr. McCurdy, resembling Jeroy Hannah charged with electricity and sincerity, makes abundantly clear the futility of a struggle to understand. The Player, backed by his company, who faintly resemble a bad LSD-trip induced by watching a Bill Irwin special, reinforces the existential angst felt by our primary pairing.

The cast, on all counts, performs with gusto and a will to please the audience. Indeed, as the Player points out, that is why such things exist. However, lacking central cohesion, one finds oneself grasping at straws in an attempt to get the jokes.

Despite this, one does find an effective design schema. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's earth-tones might allow them to be mistaken for furniture, but help to set off the almost jarring effect of the player company in Ms. Ariel Pellman's designs. The set, rickety scaffolding, is well used, and the music and sound by Myke Chapman and Ryan Brown help to set the stage well.

All else aside, Ms. Valerie Lavelle is to be congratulated on completing her directorial debut and Cardinal Rep on undertaking a difficult work. To complete Mr. Heady's comment to Connect, "...but we're making the most of our journey and keep going anyway." Perhaps truer words were never spoken. Ms. Lavelle and Cardinal Rep have dared something worthy, and the attempt itself is laudable.