Recently, we watched the Goes Wrong Show (2019), a very silly British TV series. The premise is that a regional theater company puts on an original play each episode, and it Goes Wrong. The set was specified in inches, but built in centimeters. An actor steps through a door and into a painted scrim. A character is playing one legged with the other leg tied up behind him, and it keeps coming untied. It's very funny, with a lot of physical comedy (pratfalls), stock situations and clever wordplay. Unfortunately, there are only 6 episodes. But it got us in the mood - so we watched Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990).
It's not quite the same thing - it's Hamlet from the point of view of two minor characters, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, played by Gary Oldman and Tim Roth. Even they aren't sure which one is which. As minor characters, you see, they don't have much back story. In fact, when Roth asks Oldman what his earliest memory is, he ... forgets the question.
In fact, they ask a lot of questions. On a tennis court, they play Questions, where you must answer a question with a question. Make a statement and you lose the point. When they meet up with Claudius, Gertrude, Hamlet, or others, they can recite their lines properly, but they don't know what's going on. And they are afraid to ask - what if they are sent back?
At first, it seems that their purpose is to bring in the players, led by Richard Dreyfuss. He is not my favorite actor, but great in this role: a combination of hammy, sinister, seductive ("times being what they are") and meta. Of course, the whole movie is very meta.
Or should I say, the whole play? It is of course based on the 1966 play by Tom Stoppard, who directed this movie. Even though I only visited New York once or twice in the 60s and 70s, I was well aware of this play from seeing the title on the tops of New York cabs. So glad I got to see it, and with such a great cast.
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