of the National Theatre occupied a long wooden hut with a rehearsal room at one end, Laurence Olivier’s office at the other, and somewhere between the two a tiny room hardly big enough to contain Tynan’s desk. A hatch in the wall communicated with his secretary. Ten years earlier, Tynan, as the Observer’s theatre critic, had changed the landscape with his review of Look Back in Anger. Six years earlier, I had written my first play. As far as I was concerned, to be sitting in Tynan’s visitor’s chair was to have arrived on Olympus. He had an attractive stammer, and to my consternation I heard myself stammering back at him. I remember nothing else of our meeting except that his primrose yellow polo-necked shirt—a short-lived fashion—gave him much pleasure.
At the beginning of March—by which time I had at Olivier’s prompting added to my play— ‘R and G’, as I called it, was in rehearsal. One day, Olivier popped in to watch for a while. He offered a suggestion, and as he left the room he turned and said, ‘Just the odd pearl.’ In due course we occupied the Old Vic stage for our technical rehearsals, followed by the dress rehearsal, and the next night we opened. Previews, an American innovation, were as yet unknown in England, so the terror of the opening night was on a scale I was not to experience again.
Thus it was that I and my wife sat watching the curtain go up on 11 April, and not many minutes later an elderly man in evening dress sitting in front of us sighed heavily and muttered, ‘I do wish they’d get on.’ It was largely because of him, I think, that we never emerged from the pub at the first interval and were pleasantly surprised by the exulting actors when the play was over.
For fifty years now, on being asked what Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is about, I have stood pat on ‘It’s about two courtiers at Elsinore.’ I wasn’t insensitive to more suggestive possibilities but I took the view that every subjective response had its own validity: no interpretations endorsed, none denied. The one I liked best, however, was by a Fleet Street journalist who was at the first night. ‘I get it,’ he said, ‘it’s two reporters on a story that doesn’t stand up.’
T.S.
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern
Are Dead
PRODUCTION CREDITS
The first performance of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead was given in a slightly shortened form on August 24, 1966 at Cranston Street Hall, Edinburgh, by the Oxford Theatre Group as part of the ‘‘fringe” of the Edinburgh Festival.
The cast was as follows:
Rosencrantz David Marks
Guildenstern Clive Cable
The Player Jules Roach
Tragedians Ron Forfar, Nic Renton, Howard Daubney
Hamlet John Dodgson
Ophelia Janet Watts
Claudius Nick Elliot
Gertrude Frances Morrow
Polonius Walter Merricks
Directed by Brian Daubney
The first professional production was given on April 11, 1967 at the Old Vic Theatre, London, by the National Theatre Company.
The cast was as follows:
Rosencrantz John Stride
Guildenstern Edward Petherbridge
The Player Graham Crowden
Alfred Alan Adams
Tragedians Oliver Cotton, Neil Fitzpatrick, Luke Hardy, Roger Kemp
Hamlet John McEnery
Ophelia Caroline John
Claudius Kenneth Mackintosh
Gertrude Mary Griffiths
Polonius Peter Cellier
Horatio David Hargreaves
Fortinbras David Bailie
Ambassador David Ryall
1st Soldier Christopher Timothy
2nd Soldier Denis De Marne
Court and Attendants
Petronella Barker, Margo Cunningham, Kay Gallie, David Belcher, Reginald Green, William Hobbs, Lennard Pearce, Ron Pember, Frederick Pyne
Directed by Derek Goldby
Designed by Desmond Heeley
The New York première of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead was given on October 16, 1967 at the Alvin Theatre.
The cast was as follows:
Rosencrantz Brian Murray
Guildenstern John Wood
The Player Paul Hecht
Alfred Douglas Norwick
Tragedians Roger Kemp, Dino Laudicina, B. J. Desimone, Roy Lozano
Hamlet Noel Craig
Ophelia Pat McAneny
Claudius Roger Hamilton
Gertrude Anne Meacham
Polonius Ralph Drischell
Soldier Alexander Courtney
Horatio Michael Holmes
Courtiers, Ambassadors, Soldiers, and Attendants
Walter Beery, Stephen Bernstein, Gaetano Bon Giovanni, Margaret Braidwood, Esther Buffler, Alexander Courtney, Elizabeth Eis, Elizabeth Franz, William Grannell, John Handy, Mary Hara, Carl Jacobs, Ed Marshall, Ted Pezzulo, Jonathan Reynolds
Musicians Bruce Levine, Arthur Lora, Bernie Karl, Jack Knitter
Directed by Derek Goldby
Designed by Desmond Heeley
A subsequent production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead was given on December 8, 1995 at the Lyttelton Theatre, London, by the National Theatre Group, produced by Matthew Somerville.
The cast was as follows:
Rosencrantz Adrian Scarborough
Guildenstern Simon Russell Beale
The Player King Alan Howard
Tragedians Tim Crouch, James Hirst, Rowland Holmes, Clive Llewellyn, Kraig Thornber, Luke Williams
Hamlet Paul Rattigan
Ophelia; Pirate Claudie Blakley
Claudius; Pirate Julian Forsyth
Gertrude Lois Baxter
Polonius
