Rosencrantz

Tom Stoppard was originally born in  Czechoslovakia to the name  Tomas Straussler. He is Jewish and his family fled to Singapore on March 15th 1939 when the Nazis invaded, then again to India with his mother and brother, and then again to Yorkshire in 1946. He went to boarding school there and in Nottinghamshire. 

He never went to university, after his O levels he went straight to working as a journalist for The Western Daily press and the Bristol evening world, but felt he didn’t quite cut it as a journalist or reporter. He quit to become a playwright. He wrote his first full length play “A Walk On The Water”.

one of the main factors, particularly for guil, is their need for directions. our protagonists don’t know what to do with themselves when there isn’t another character telling them what they’re “supposed to” do next. they both respond to this uncertainty with confusion, but guil in particular becomes very anxious when he doesn’t have directions.

in act 1, when they are trying to remember where they’re going and why, guildenstern gets stressed out by the fact that they have been left to their own devices: “We have not been . . . picked out . . . simply to be abandoned . . . set loose to find our own way. . . . We are entitled to some direction. . . . I would have thought.” guil seems somewhat aware that they have been “picked out” as the focus on the play, and therefore feels “entitled” to be given instructions on what to do.

there are multiple points in the play when he tells guil that they should try doing something other than what they have been told they’re “supposed to” do, but guil is too scared to try it because he’s afraid of the uncertainty that would come with forging their own path.

so ros drops it and stays with guil. every time.

i truly think that ros could have escaped the narrative if he was by himself, but he WON’T because that would mean leaving guil, and he’s not going to do that.

guil values security (being sure of what he is meant to be doing and what will happen next), while ros values his relationships with other characters.

we see more evidence of these values in their reactions to realizing that the letter they’re carrying has instructions for hamlet to be killed.

guildenstern thinks that they should pretend that they never read the letter and give it to the king of england as planned. he is relieved to have a clear direction to go in.

rosencrantz is more troubled by the contents of the letter. he feels guilty about the idea of allowing hamlet to be killed, because they are his friends.

So at the beginning of Act III, if you cut Claudius telling Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to leave them, you can then have them join Claudius and Polonius in spying on the entire get thee to a nunnery scene, and then on top of that when they come out of hiding and Polonius is dismissively like "we heard it Ophelia, no need to talk about it" you could do so much and so many different things with a silent interaction between Rosencrantz and Ophelia....possible acknowledging at that point that they don't really know each other then but she's clearly so upset and he can go sort of hesitantly at first put his arm around her; offering her a comfort no one else is.

And of course you can ramp up their interactions during the play within a play scene; particularly with the audience assembling for the play within the play, before Hamlet goes over to Ophelia and could be talking to Rosencrantz and effectively take her away from him.

You could also potentially insert Ophelia into the play upon the pipe scene, the same way you can easily keep Horatio in all of it rather than having him coming off and on (and side point the idea of having them both be in that scene is fascinating) - and the core of that scene is really the sparing match between Hamlet and Guildenstern so then you just have Rosencrantz with Ophelia (and, imo, Horatio sort of on Hamlet's "side") of the stage hovering there not knowing what to do being like "wtf is going on".

And then at that point if you've created some sort of (frankly platonic or romantic - either works) relationship between Ophelia and Rosencrantz you don't need to have her in the scenes of Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern, trying to get Hamlet to tell them where Polonius's body is - the emotions of that in that kind of performance will speak for themselves.

And then actually arguably the saddest thing would just to have them not interact again (also ngl I can't think how you'd do that because you can't have a sort of "goodbye" moment because whilst Rosencrantz is just leaving, Ophelia is already going to know her dad is dead and her mental state is going to be a whole thing that would make doing that as just a brief moment quite hard to make work).

But something you could do - and actually of all the things here this would make the most text editing to have them be discussed in parallel, but, and generally I prefer Ophelia to die off stage, but I've always liked the idea of showing on an upper balcony or that sort of space the moment when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern realise they are going to be killed and are dragged off to the gallows; and you could do that alongside a similar image or Ophelia on the riverbank ready to jump into the water.

Completely forgot I ordered this but it's here and it's great.

life in a box is better than no life at all ig