Tom Stoppard - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

TOM STOPPARD was catapulted into the front ranks of modern playwrights overnight when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead opened in London in 1967. Its subsequent run in New York brought it the same enthusiastic acclaim, and the play has since been performed numerous times in the major theatrical centers of the world. It has won top honors for a play and playwright in a poll of London Theater critics, and in its printed form it was chosen one of the "Notable Books of 1967" by the American Library Association. "Stoppard is the master comedian of ideas in the English language; Jack Kroll said about him in Newsweek. Each of his stage works has confirmed this view. Theatergoers have been able to admire his wit and thrill to his command of the English language in jumpers, The Real Inspector Hound, Travesties, Enter A Free Man, After Magritte, and Dirty Linen and New-Found-Land.

He is also the author of the novel Lord Malquist and Mr. Moon.

WORKS BY TOM STOPPARD PUBLISHED BY GROVE PRESS Every Good Boy Deserves Favor and Professional Foul Jumpers The Real Inspector Hound and Other Plays Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Travesties The Invention of Love by Tom Stoppard Consulting editor: Henry Popkin The first performance of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead was given in a slightly shortened form on August 24, 1966 at Cranston Street Hall, Edinburgh, by the Oxford Theatre Group as part of the "fringe" of the Edinburgh Festival. The cast was as follows: Directed by Brian Daubney The first professional production was given on April 11, 1967 at the Old Vic Theatre, London, by the National Theatre Company. The cast was as follows: COURT AND ATTENDANTS Petronella Barker, Margo Cunningham, Kay Gallie, David Belcher, Reginald Green, William Hobbs, Lennard Pearce, Ron Pember, Frederick Pyne Directed by Derek Goldby Designed by Desmond Heeley The New York premiere of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead was given on October 16, 1967 at the Alvin Theatre. The cast was as follows: COURTIERS, AMBASSADORS, SOLDIERS, AND ATTENDANTS Walter Beery, Stephen Bernstein, Gaetano Bon Giovanni, Margaret Braidwood, Esther Buffler, Alexander Courtney, Elizabeth Eis, Elizabeth Franz, William Grannell, John Handy, Mary Hara, Carl Jacobs, Ed Marshall, Ted Pezzulo, Jonathan Reynolds Directed by Derek Goldby Designed by Desmond Heeley Two ELIZABETHANS passing the time in a place without any visible character.

They are well dressed-hats, cloaks, sticks and all. Each of them has a large leather money bag. GUILDENSTERN's bag is nearly empty. ROSENCRANTZ's bag is nearly full. The reason being: they are betting on the toss of a coin, in the following manner: GUILDENSTERN (hereafter "GULL") takes a coin out of his bag, spins it, letting it fall. ROSENCRANTZ (hereafter "Ros") studies it, announces it as "heads" (as it happens) and puts it into his own bag.

Then they repeat the process. They have apparently been doing this for some time. The run of "heads" is impossible, yet Ros betrays no surprise at all-he feels none. However, he is nice enough to feel a little embarrassed at taking so much money o8 his friend. Let that be his character note. GULL is well alive to the oddity of it.

He is not worried about the money, but he is worried by the implications; aware but not going to panic about it his character note. GULL sits. ROS stands (he does the moving, retrieving coins). GULL Spins. ROS studies coin. ROS: Heads.

He picks it up and puts it in his bag. The process is repeated. Heads. Again. Heads. Heads. Again. Heads. Heads.

GULL (flipping a coin): There is an art to the building up of suspense. Ros: Heads. GULL (flipping another): Though it can be done by luck alone. Ros: Heads. GULL: If that's the word I'm after. ROS (raises his head at GUmL): Seventy-six-love.

GULL gets up but has nowhere to go. He spins another coin over his shoulder without looking at it, his attention being directed at his environment or lack of it. Heads. GULL: A weaker man might be moved to re-examine his faith, if in nothing else at least in the law of probability. (He slips a coin over his shoulder as he goes to look upstage.) ROS: Heads. GULL, examining the confines of the stage, flips over two more coins as he does so, one by one of course.

Ros announces each of them as "heads." GULL (musing) : The law of probability, it has been oddly asserted, is something to do with the proposition that if six monkeys (he has surprised himself) ... if six monkeys were ... ROS: Game? GULL: Were they? ROS: Are you? GULL (understanding): Game. (Flips a coin.) The law of averages, if I have got this right, means that if six monkeys were thrown up in the air for long enough they would land on their tails about as often as they would land on their Ros: Heads. (He picks up the coin.) GULL: Which even at first glance does not strike one as a particularly rewarding speculation, in either sense, even without the monkeys. I mean you wouldn't bet on it.

I mean I would, but you wouldn't.... (As he flips a coin.) Ros: Heads. GULL: Would you? (Flips a coin.) Ros: Heads. Repeat. Heads. (He looks up at mm-embarrassed laugh.) Getting a bit of a bore, isn't it? GULL (coldly) : A bore? Ros: Well...

GULL: What about the suspense? Ros (innocently): What suspense? Small pause. GULL: It must be the law of diminishing returns.... I feel the spell about to be broken. (Energizing himself somewhat. He takes out a coin, spins it high, catches it, turns it over on to the back of his other hand, studies the coin-and tosses it to ROS. if my calculations are correct. if my calculations are correct.

ROS: Eighty-five in a row-beaten the record! GULL: Don't be absurd. ROS: Easily! GUIL (angry) : Is that it, then? Is that all? Ros: What? GULL: A new record? Is that as far as you are prepared to go? ROS: Well ... GUIL: No questions? Not even a pause? Ros: You spun them yourself. GUIL: Not a flicker of doubt? ROS (aggrieved, aggressive) : Well, I won-didn't I? GUIL (approaches him-quieter) : And if you'd lost? If they'd come down against you, eighty-five times, one after another, just like that? Ros (dumbly) : Eighty-five in a row? Tails? GUIL: Yes! What would you think? Ros (doubtfully): Well .... (jocularly.) Well, I'd have a good look at your coins for a start! GUIL (retiring) : I'm relieved. At least we can still count on selfinterest as a predictable factor....