Who's Dead?

Who are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?

They are two minor characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet, who in the play written by Tom Stoppard, find themselves pawns in many twists of the play's plot. Eureka High School's Theatre Company, etc., performed the play based on these two fellows March 10-12. 

Eureka artistic director, Susanne Allmendinger, in her director's notes stated that Stoppard plays on one of the famous yet least important lines in Shakespeare:  "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead." She said the line changes nothing in the plot, adds nothing of importance to the action, and it doesn't affect the theme.  She said many productions of Hamlet actually cut the two characters completely.

Allmendinger said the play questions the meaning of life, and examines whether man is in charge of his own action or merely a victim of circumstances over which he had no control.

She said, "Coincidentally, the events leading up to this production has led us to ponder many of these same questions. Seven days of rehearsal lost to 'snowmageddon,' two days of set construction delayed due to the forced rescheduling of Mr. EHS, surprise of ice and snow on scheduled tech Saturdays, and a simple set that ended up being unexpectedly challenging...what more could we endure?"

"Through all the stress and strife, I'm proud of how this cast and crew seized control of their own fate and refused to be victims of circumstances," she said. "From the construction crew emerging splattered from head-to-toe in rainbow colored paint with their hands turning yellow from weeks of using glue to paper mache to the actors spending hours learning to flip coins and fight with swords to the emergency re-rigging needed to bring this set to life, this has probably been one of the most entertaining production processes with which I've ever been involved."

One of the most interesting lines from the play was:  "All your life, you lived so close to the truth, it was a blur in your eye."

THE CAST:

THE CREW: