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Jamie Parker and Samuel Barnett in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead [Stoppard, dir. Trevor Nunn 2001]
The two boys playing the leads, Samuel Barnett and Jamie Parker, are absolutely amazing - a true tour-de-force double act reminiscent of Ant and Dec but with a much better script and very extensive and complicated dialogue, and they carry the play with a professionalism and confidence which seem perfectly natural and unforced. Most famous for their roles in The History Boys on stage and screen, here their quick-fire repartee and rhythm of speech are outstanding.
(Full review from The British Theatre Guide)
Jamie Parker and Sam Barnett in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
‘Jamie and I know each other so well and adore each other, so there is a real chemistry between us.’ – Samuel Barnett
'Sam and I spent two-and-a-half years in each other’s pockets with The History Boys, so doing a play that I have always wanted to do with a very dear friend is really exciting.’ – Jamie Parker
@eva-erectus
Nunn’s production not only gets to the play’s emotional core, but also artfully distinguishes between the two leads. Samuel Barnett’s outstanding Rosencrantz strikes an often hilarious note of panic and fluster in the face of uncertainty, while Jamie Parker’s Guildenstern strives to maintain an air of Socratic stoicism. Chris Andrew Mellon, stepping in at short notice for Tim Curry, also does an excellent job as the Player, who is a mixture of seedy pimp and robust rhetorician. Yet what finally moves one is the way the two heroes, as the darkness closes in, cling to each other for comfort. Exactly as in Beckett.
(Full review in The Guardian)
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard
@faeriequeen = LIFE RUINER. D: D: D:
(She knows I =6 her really.)
What are you playing at?
Words. Words. They’re all we have to go on.
the fruit of my labors for the afternoon, i give you: hamlet, emo gay of denmark
starring jamie parker as hamlet and samuel barnett as laertes in the end of act 5, scene 2, spliced together from the bbc radio 4 play and the big finish audiobook
i made a soundcloud just to share this with y’all what has my life come to
-courfeyrac:
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Tom Stoppard. Theatre Royal Haymarket, London. 28 July 2011.
Rosencrantz: Samuel Barnett. Guildenstern: Jamie Parker.
ROS (cutting his fingernails): Another curious scientific phenomenon is the fact that the fingernails grow after death, as does the beard. GUIL: What? ROS: Beard! GUIL: But you’re not dead. ROS: I didn’t stay they started to grow after death! The fingernails also grow before birth, though not the beard. GUIL: What? ROS: Beard! What’s the matter with you? The toenails on the other hand never grow at all. GUIL: The toenails on the other hand never grow at all? ROS: Do they? It’s a funny thing - I cut my fingernails all the time, and every time I think to cut them, they need cutting. Now, for instance. And yet, I never, to the best of my knowledge, cut my toenails. They ought to be curled under my feet by now, but it doesn’t happen. I never think of them. Perhaps I cut them absentmindedly, when I’m thinking of something else.
-courfeyrac:
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Tom Stoppard. Theatre Royal Haymarket, London. 28 July 2011.
Rosencrantz: Samuel Barnett. Guildenstern: Jamie Parker.
ROS: Who was that? GUIL: Didn’t you know him? ROS: He didn’t know me. GUIL: He didn’t see you. ROS: I didn’t see him. GUIL: We shall see. I hardly knew him, he’s changed. ROS: You could see that? GUIL: Transformed. ROS: How do you know? GUIL: Inside and out. ROS: I see. GUIL: He’s not himself. ROS: He’s changed. GUIL: I could see that. Glean what afflicts him. ROS: Me? GUIL: Him. ROS: How? GUIL: Question and answer. Old ways are the best ways. ROS: He’s afflicted. GUIL: You question, I’ll answer. ROS: He’s not himself, you know. GUIL: I’m him, you see. ROS: Who am I then? GUIL: You’re yourself. ROS: And he’s you? GUIL: Not a bit of it. ROS: Are you afflicted? GUIL: That’s the idea. Are you ready? ROS: Let’s go back a bit. GUIL: I’m afflicted. ROS: I see. GUIL: Glean what afflicts me. ROS: Right. GUIL: Question and answer. ROS: How should I begin? GUIL: Address me. ROS: My dear Guildenstern. GUIL: You’ve forgotten, haven’t you? ROS: My dear Rosencrantz. GUIL: I don’t think you quite understand. What we are attempting is a hypothesis in which I answer for him, while you ask me questions. ROS: Ah! Ready? GUIL: You know what to do? ROS: What? GUIL: Are you stupid? ROS: Pardon? GUIL: Are you deaf? ROS: Did you speak? GUIL: Not now— ROS: Statement. GUIL: Not now!
Jamie Parker and Sam Barnett in rehearsal for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. More pictures here. Thanks faeriequeen for the link!
The really clever thing is the unexpected casting of a highly strung Rosencrantz and a dogged, steady Guildenstern; it’s usually the other way round, but Barnett and Parker reverse expectations all the way through, retaining character while seeming to be interchangeable, as others think of them anyway. “Consistency is all I ask,” says one; "Immortality is all I seek,“ the other. Impossible requests, both.
(Full review at The Independent)