Tom Stoppard's comedy is almost 60 years old but has lost none of its relevance - the story of two minor characters from Hamlet lost, confused, and finally doomed due to (see title) is a tale that's uniquely appealing to our complex world where the sense of never quite knowing where you are or what's going on around you is ever-present. These two figures are styled as a classic comic pair - one inquisitive idiot, one complacent idiot, both lost in a world they have minimal control over. The fact that the "bigger picture" they're missing is one of the great works of world literature throws an additional twist in the tale.
Cate Clelland's production brings the play to life in an open theatrical space making great use of Rep's wide stage to provide various areas for Ros and Guil to contemplate, explore and deal with those who confront them, whether they be the traveling players who seem to know a lot more than them about the way the world works, or the Danish Royal court playing out their preassigned roles in the drama. Rocks to sit, a wooden ramp for them to delve into the play-behind-the-play, and three sizable barrells with more in them than should reasonably be possible make up the scenery, and the play builds up from lacksidasical philosophical meanderings about the character's reality and history into a building sense of doom as inevitable fate looms ever larger.
Josh Wiseman and Lainie Hart are a perfect pair, Wiseman as the more inquisitive of the pair trying to work out what his place in the world, Hart as the one taking joy in the moment. There's an easy give and take between the two which draws us in, makes us side with them as they struggle to understand the world around them and ultimately surrender to the void. They're a wonderful pair and I hope to see them matched up together in many future productions by enterprising directors. Added to the mix as their most frequent interlocutor is Arran McKenna as the player king, a figure who by virtue of being a performer of tragedies is somehow already aware how things are going to play out and teases, baits and disconcerts the pair with his knowledge. McKenna is suitably larger-than-life, bombastic, impressive and menacing by turns. As for the rest, those doing the cut-down version of Hamlet mostly give a general impression of their roles (Orphelia is cut down to pretty much just the screaming, Claudius to the imperious arrogance, Gertrude to genial snobbery, Polonius to the befuddlement and Hamlet to sinister sarcasm), and the players provide a tight troupe of musicians, jugglers, acrobats and poor long-suffering Albert.
Anna Senior and her team provide a mix of glorious Elizabethan outfits for the cast, and Neville Pye and Justin Mullin's soundscape of disconcerting weather and seascapes gives specificity to the lonely world our characters find themselves in.
This is a modern classic played in strong style, and should absolutely be seen, consumed and talked about.
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