Funny, Complex and Timeless

The first thing we see in Tom Stoppard’s classic 1966 tragicomedy “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” performed by the Rhinebeck Theatre Society at the Center for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck, is the title characters tossing coins. 

Every toss for the play’s duo comes up heads, 92 times in a row. We are entering a world that is decidedly not random, where the fate of the characters is as predetermined and unalterable as a coin toss that never varies.

It’s as if Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are written down in the Jewish Book of Life — or rather, in Shakespeare’s book, “Hamlet,” from which these two characters originate. And since Shakespeare used the very words of the play’s title in his own, what choice do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have? The only real question is whether they are ever alive at all.

If all this sounds like an existential dilemma on the order of “Waiting for Godot,” well, it is. In Stoppard’s hands, however, it is far funnier and structurally complex, as the title characters essentially exist within and offstage of “Hamlet,” intersecting with that play’s action and dialogue at the moments when they do in the actual Shakespeare.

In “Hamlet,” Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are courtiers who are ordered by the Danish king to take Hamlet to England, where unbeknownst to them, he will be assassinated. The plot is foiled, however, and they meet their fate there instead. 

Stoppard’s text also plays with the idea that they are secondary characters. Absent any back story or purpose of their own, other than to convey the prince to England, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hardly know who they are, where they come from or where they are going. Much of the time they can’t even tell who’s one and who’s the other (and neither can anyone else).

The Rhinebeck performance makes a compelling case for the timelessness of Stoppard’s play. The leads, Brett Owen as Guildenstern and Steven Cohen as Rosencrantz, got off to a shaky start but soon settled into their roles nicely. This is Herculean acting in a Shakespeare-length (nearly three-hour) production. Owen especially spins wonderful webs with Stoppard’s clever wordplay.

The show is nearly stolen by Michael da Torre as the “Player,” leader of a wandering troupe of actors (also borrowed from “Hamlet”), whose taste for fictional bloodlust is rendered in stentorian tones. Through his shape-shifting antics, we confront the blurred line between art and reality — the same line that bedevils the title characters.

The sets by Richard Prouse and Andy Weintraub, including a replica of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, are among the best I’ve seen at Rhinebeck. They fill out the stage beautifully, and both assist and comment on the action. The Elizabethan costumes (Donna Letteri and Heidi Johnson) are also outstanding.

I thoroughly enjoyed this production of a witty and thought-provoking play.

“Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” continues at the Center for the Performing Arts at Rhinebeck through April 9. For tickets and information, call 845-876-3080 or go to www.centerforperformingarts.org.