Samuel Barnett - Tumblr Posts
-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)
Samuel Barnett, Jamie Parker and Jack Hawkins in "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" (2011)
Samuel Barnett and Jamie Parker in “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead”
I’ve fallen heads -over-heels in love with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and there are so many scenes I love but the ridiculous flustered rant Rosencrantz does made me giggle so here’s a doodle
Pirates could happen to anyone
HAMLET: Nymph, in thy orisons be all my sins remembered.
OPHELIA: Good my lord, how does your honour for this many a day?
HAMLET: I humbly thank you; well, well, well.
OPHELIA: My lord, I have remembrances of yours, that I have longed long to re-deliver; I pray you, now receive them.
HAMLET: No, not I; I never gave you aught.
OPHELIA: My honoured lord, you know right well you did…
(They disappear talking into the wing.)
ROS: It’s like living in a public park!
GUIL: Very impressive. Yes, I thought your direct informal approach was going to stop this thing dead in its tracks there. If I might make a suggestion – shut up and sit down. Stop being perverse.
ROS (near tears): I’m not going to stand for it!
(A FEMALE FIGURE, ostensibly the QUEEN, enters. ROS marches up behind her, puts his hands over her eyes and says with a desperate frivolity.)
ROS: Guess who?!
PLAYER (having appeared in a downstage corner): Alfred!
(ROS lets go, spins around. He had been holding ALFRED, in his robe and blonde wig. PLAYER is in the downstage corner still. ROS comes down to that exit. The PLAYER does not budge. He and ROS stand toe to toe.)
ROS: Excuse me.
The king and the queen of Denmark are Guildenstern and Rosencrantz
Hamlet: My uncle wants to send me on a boat to England, to be put to death?!?! Then I shall CHANGE THE LETTER!!
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern:
Rosencrantz: Our children will be beautiful and smart.
Guildenstern: What in God's name is the matter with you?
Rosencrantz: Just being friendly.
Let’s hold each other as the end of the world slowly approaches.
“Life’s a curse, love’s a blight, God’s a blaggard, cherry blossom is quite nice.”
— Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Quarantined
IM SCREAMING
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (2011) starring Jamie Parker and Samuel Barnett
Jamie Parker and Samuel Barnett at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in 2011. Photo: Tristram Kenton