REVIEW: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
Through 6/1 @ Albany Civic Theater
Photos by Willie David Short V
“Gangemi, his two very funny leads and their mad troupe haven’t forgotten to bring the funny.”
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead is one of the greatest fanfiction imaginings inspired by a great work of art as two minor characters from Hamlet take center stage and play with their fates and the meaning of it all from the sidelines.
R&G introduced the world to Tom Stoppard, the wittiest English writer since Oscar Wilde, who filled this play with quotable lines. David Zwierankin has taken his cue from the master and filled his magnificent set (especially well lit by Laura Darling) which is the most successful element of the production with the quotes. “Eternity is a terrible thought. I mean where is it going to end?” is scrawled on the stage floor as if on a scrap of paper left behind.
The set is a huge writer’s desk scaled to the stage so the actors are the size of toy army men. There’s a beautiful giant quill and inkwell, candle, tankard and books by Montagne and Machiavelli. It’s a gorgeous playing area and works as a comment on the action as the cleverness spins for well over two hours. You can justify the length and the mismatched time periods of the costumes (very attractively designed by Siobhan Shea) as the overactive imagination of the desk’s occupant. The set even holds surprises (my favorite!) that aren’t utilized until late in the play. Well done.
The playing of Stoppard’s Beckettian dialogue between two men summoned to act who can’t find the specific action to give their lives purpose is well-played by two of the area’s finest actors; the cautious Rosencrantz of Adam Coons and the slow burn Guildenstern of Ryan Palmer. The dialogue is difficult, sometimes timed with coin flips which were somewhat sloppily executed. Far superior was a smashing tennis match of word play which had them volleying back and forth like champions. Game. Set. Match.
Breaking up the boys club back and forth is Sydney Davis as The Player King who strides wildly onto the stage, mustached and spit curled and ready to play. Sydney and her troupe (Shaya Reyes, Abigail Rose Decker, Kayla LaBombard & Thom Ingram) have elaborate facial makeup and some rather imaginative stage movements. The tragedians picked up the fanfiction baton and went off delightfully, flying its own freak flag.
Tobias Martin gives a straightforward reading of Hamlet which, in this production, makes a contrary impression. Alex Grandin got stuck in contemporary dress as Horatio and struggled to make an impression as many do in that role. Cecelia Grey scores laughs as the lofty Gertrude with Paul Curcio as the imperious Claudius. The lovely Emily Crist is Ophelia and J Hunter prematurely plays Polonius.
Amazingly, 11 of the actors are making their debuts on the Albany Civic Theater stage! If there are greater signs of the health and growth of the Capital Region theater scene than a show that is this attractive and entertainingly played, it is being executed by a large company and a director who are first timers to ACT. Excellent!
Even better, it’s funny. Stoppard has said that although this play gets a lot of serious attention for its absurdist, Beckettian undertones, he would consider the play a failure if it were not funny. Gangemi, his two very funny leads and their mad troupe haven’t forgotten to bring the funny.
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead is playing at Albany Civic Theater (235 Second Avenue, Albany NY 12209) through 6/1. Tickets: www.albanycivictheater.org or 518-462-1297
