Troupe tackles absurdist reinterpretation of 'Hamlet'
By MICHAEL SMITH World Entertainment Writer 8/17/00
Dale Sams and Suzanne Sanders play the title roles in "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead." JAMES GIBBARD / Tulsa World
Dale Sams is having a hard time describing his latest project, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead." And he wouldn't want it any other way.
He discusses it in fits and starts. And fits. And then he stops.
"I like being in a play that I'm not quite sure what it's about," said Sams, the director and one of the title players. "If I'm in a show and someone asks me about it and I can't immediately tell them what's going on, that's a good thing." This comic tale that turns Shakespeare's "Hamlet" on its head is the kind of production that will cultivate a following among those looking for something completely different.
It comes just weeks after Midwestern Theater Troupe's long- prepped original production of "Romolo the Great," John Cruncleton's funny, disturbing and wonderful creation that incorporated 7-foot-tall puppets, pies in the face, R-rated material, improvisation and audience participation in a circus-set tragedy. "I think they (MTT) will get a reputation for offering some pretty independent fare, (and) that's a good thing," Sams said of the group that seems to revel in individuality.
"Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" was Tom Stoppard's first full-length play, presented originally at the Old Vic Theater in London in 1967 by the National Theater Company, before the playwright went on to pen plays like "The Real Thing" and screenplays like "Shakespeare in Love."
The play has become a staple presented often in other locales, but not in Tulsa.
"I think it must have just gotten overlooked. When it was announced, a lot of people said they were really glad to see it," Sams said.
The play is "Hamlet" reinterpreted through an existentialist mindset, a la "Waiting for Godot." It's seen in absurdist fashion by the two most minor characters in "Hamlet," who live in a world that's beyond their comprehension. They are often unsure of who they are and what they're doing. Forces out of their control are at work, and they are clueless.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have been dispatched to meet with and learn what ails their boyhood friend, Hamlet, and report back to the king and queen. But they leave the visit more confused than before. In their travels, the pair meet the Player and his Tragedians, a merry band that, while in rehearsal for a melodrama, performs a song foretelling the duo's deaths. But the pair is oblivious to this subtle-as-a-hammer-to-the-head reference.
The duo's qualities of complacency and indecisiveness will result in their downfall. The fate of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern shouldn't come as a spoiler considering the title.
"I see the play as a satire on an audience's expectations of characters," said Sams, who plays Rosencrantz and tapped Suzanne Sanders for the usually male role of Guildenstern.
"As the play is a satire on character and on the characters' becoming aware themselves -- that they are only characters and not real people -- I have felt at liberty to do a little gender-blind casting of the role of Guildenstern.
MTT leader Cruncleton takes the role of Player, and other cast members include Scott Heberling as Hamlet, Craig Walters as Polonius and Liz Masters portraying Gertrude.
Michael Smith, World entertainment writer, can be reached at 581-8474 or via e-mail at michael.smith@tulsaworld.com.