This Road by Poe / post by @janemorris / Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), dir. Tom Stoppard / Circles by Marion Ethel Hamilton / Happy Death Day (2017), dir. Christopher Landon / Alan Wake II / Fatigue Empire by Cynthia Cruz / Black Sails episode XXXII
I need to know about the muppets Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are dead!!!
Okay, so, the big problem is doing a film adaptation of Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are Dead is that the fourth wall breaks simply work better on stage than they do on film. Much of the play happens on what we would consider “off stage” with Rosencrantz and Guilderstern filling up time waiting for their cue.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve got a soft spot for the film adaptation, but it’s clear that Tom Stoppard is a better writer than he is film director. Everything is staged rather stiffly and there is a neglect of certain film language he could be utilizing to replicate the meta aspects of the stage production. Now what company of players have made jumping rope with the fourth wall an art form? Enter, The Muppets.
Now the big thing that gonna make this work is treat it as if the Muppets are doing their own version of Hamlet and cast accordingly. Miss Piggy as Gertrude, Fozzie is Polonius, big celebrity as Hamlet and most importantly Gonzo as Rosencrantz and Rizzo and Guilderstern.
Have them clearly on set and shot exactly how like it would shot in the play for their scenes (including Muppet appropriate jokes), but when they’re “off screen” switch to an almost candid camera and have them switch almost entirely to Stoppard’s words with minimal to no Muppet gags to emphasize that this is them when the cameras aren’t rolling.
And here’s the big kicker, cast Frank Oz as The Player and the rest of the Tragedians as the actual puppeteers. Full faces, everything.
Are you starting to see it? All of these actors playing roles within roles, stuck in a loop and trying to find some meaning in all of it. Examining the Muppets themselves as both the characters they are and the people we so often think of them as truly being.
And, most important of all, Gonzo the Great performing the “In a Box” speech.
TLDR: The Muppets are the only troop I trust to make an interesting and loyal Rosencrantz and Guilderstern Are Dead adaptation.
- I want to go home. Which way did we come in? I've lost my sense of direction.
- The only beginning is birth and the only end is death - if you can't count on that, what can you count on?
(lost boys came straight out of my heart.
btw i like this early new england gravestone rubbings i added on this piece, even though it’s not really fits in time period, but who th cares, it matches the vibe, so…)
rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead is such a punch to the gut, they're so orpheus and eurydice coded. they don't know who they are without each other, and while gulidenstern desperately attempts to grasp for reality and understand, all rosencrantz can do is grab hold to guildenstern's hand as hard as he can and never let him go because guil is the only thing he knows. rosencrantz looks to guildenstern for answers, and guildenstern hunts for an answer because he can't fail rosencrantz he can't loose him, even if that means slipping into depression, at the same time rosencrantz will do anything to make guildenstern happy. beacuse all they have is each other, and they beg to change the ending, but they can't because at the end of the play rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead
web weave about… uh. yearning to start again? trying to break the time loop? wishing to know then what you know now? something like that.
ghosts by henrik ibsen / rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead (1990) dir. tom stoppard / the three sisters by anton chekhov / “brand new city” by mitski
We can do you dick jokes and cringe without the meta fuckery, and we can do you meta fuckery and cringe without the dick jokes, but we can’t give you meta fuckery and dick jokes without the cringe. Cringe is compulsory.
Happiest of birthdays, sir! You don't have any idea of how much I appreciate your existence and how much I treasure your work (be it on the theatre, tv movies, tv shows, and films). I've talked extensively before of how characters like Neil, Wilson, Housman, Barry Kempler, Danny, and many others have resonated with me; and how your work has changed my life time and time again. In honor of your birthday, I proudly present:
Robert Sean Leonard on the stage
For the full HD version on YouTube: here
If you want to know more about RSL's stage career, @samnyangie has a very good guide here
PS1: I know he probably won't see this taking into consideration that the man doesn't use social media, and it's almost impossible that he would choose to look at the hellsite, but one can dream
PS2: I chose Elvis Costello's music because he said he liked it on an interview