You ever have one of those days when you wake up with the vague sense you might be dead? And it’s hard to remember how you got wherever it is you are, and you even mix up your name with the person plopped into the situation with you? The title characters in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead can relate.
Or is it Guidenstern and Rosencrantz? No matter. Having materialized on the Court Theatre stage in a streamlined, no-intermission production of Tom Stoppard’s 1966 absurdist existential classic, they bumble their way toward enlightenment that remains just out of reach until it vanishes behind a curtain in front of the blood-red back wall festooned with the theater’s name. Blood is compulsory, after all.
In his final directorial bow in the role of artistic director after a powerful three-decade run, Charles Newell has quite a lot of fun with the material. Much deadpan drollery issues from these two minor characters out of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. They’re played with dumbstruck aplomb by Nate Burger and Erik Hellman, whose performances are so tightly intertwined they seem to be sharing a single anarchic brain while they oscillate between hope and dread.
As they grope their way forward, the two come upon a troupe of actors who perform The Murder of Gonzago, Hamlet’s play-within-a-play, led by The Player, portrayed with verve and semi-comic menace by Lorenzo Rush Jr., the most memorable actor onstage as he continues a run of fine performances that often sees him commanding the Marriott Theatre stage. (The guy should be in line for a major award…)
The inclusion of an ensemble performance of Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” to cap the evening off is an inspired choice, as the lyrics resonate perfectly with what has transpired for the past 90 minutes, like a musical cipher key.
Who knew? Newell knew, that’s who.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead runs through April 28 at the Court Theatre.
For a full roundup of reviews of this show, visit Theatre in Chicago.
Photo by Michael Brosilow
