Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead - Faber Modern Classics

After seeing the play live in cinemas in April (and at Oxford Playhouse in 2005), I thought it might interesting to look at the script. Faber Modern Classics published this version earlier this year to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary production at The Old Vic.

And yes, reading the play is as funny as watching it. I could not read the lines spoken by The Player without hearing David Haig in my head. Or for that matter, Daniel Radcliffe and Joshua McGuire. Towards the end, Stoppard has fun with Guildenstern's summary of Hamlet's state of mind:

"It really boils down to symptoms. Pregnant replies, mystic allusions, mistaken identities, arguing his father is his mother, that sort of thing.; intimations of suicide, forgoing of exercise, loss of mirth, hints of claustrophobia, not to say delusions of imprisonment; invocations of camels, chameleons, capons, whales, weasels, hawks, handsaws - riddles, quibbles and evasions; amnesia, paranoia, myopia (I could not stop laughing of how that is so ridiculous, especially after how serious is the previous word); day dreaming, hallucinations; stabbing his elders, abusing his parents, insulting his lover and appearing hatless in public - knock-kneed, drooped-stockinged and sighing like a love-sick schoolboy, which at his age is coming on a bit strong."

Far more dramatic than seeing the play, the excerpts where R&G are included in Shakespeare's text of Hamlet stand out vividly. This is a book to revisit time and time again.