I vividly remember hearing about this play when I was a senior in high school, in AP English, reading
Hamlet and my teacher talking about this play written about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two mostly insignificant characters in the original play. I have meant to read it ever since, and I finally requested it at the library and got around to it. I was surprised by how short it was (of course, plays do seem pretty short when printed) and it only took me about an hour to get through. I know that it is an ironic comedy, where we see the action of the tragedy of
Hamlet through the eyes of two pretty hilarious and unintelligent characters, but that is the problem with reading a play. It is meant to be staged, meant to be viewed and experienced in an entirely different way--so it really isn't fair to judge a play by reading it, similar to Shakespeare's plays. I could see a lot of the funny parts as I was reading, but I imagine it would have been funnier if I'd been watching it. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern can't tell themselves apart from each other, and are like two sides of the same coin. They are summoned to come help Hamlet and find out what's wrong with him, but they spend most of their time deliberating about which way to go to find him, and when Hamlet comes across them, they don't know what to say or just watch him as he walks past. They are extremely passive when it comes to their fate and get thrown into situations without even knowing where they are--and they have no idea that they are heading for their own deaths (although we, as the audience, do, from the ending of
Hamlet). There was a lot of self-aware commentary on acting and actors, which is appropriate for a play and for the people acting in it, but not all that interesting to me since I have no involvement in that world. Overall, it was an interesting look at the play, and made me want to go re-read
Hamlet, and I wish I could see it staged live because I bet it would be a lot more enjoyable.
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