Guildenstern's journal

10 aug '00

We met for the first read-through of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. John has made some middling cuts, mainly to Guil's part, for which I am grateful, believe it or not. I am intimidated by the volume of text that I have to learn. It's also clear, from a first reading, that Guil has a lot of emotional ground to cover.

John gave very preliminary notes as we completed each French scene, as he likes to do. He warned me about being introspective all the time; rather I should pick my spots, and then it will be effective, for instance the monologue "Well, yes, and then again no," which recapitulates Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" in contemporary language. He stressed urgency, which is not surprising, given how talky this play is.

John has cut all of Guil's "Give us this day..." codas. Oh well.

Guil suggests to me a graduate student, eager to begin teaching, leading his first quiz section. And Rosencrantz, his only pupil, is a dud.

The word "inexorable" appears more than once in the play. My Compact Oxford gives two senses: (1) relentless (2) (of a person or attribute) that which cannot be persuaded by request or entreaty. The Latin exorare means "to entreat." There's something to play there.

Belèn is stumbling over the word "tragedian." I will have to slip the correct pronunciation to John, who's giving it to her wrong.

Dino and I have a lot of ping-pong sequences that have to go quickly. It's always an adventure with Dino into the text. He will eventually learn it, and 95% of it will be what Stoppard wrote.

before
index and backstory
after