Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

The UC Davis department of theater and dance, and Michael Barakiva, director, have rectified a mistake that was made back in 1966, when someone rejected a new play by an aspiring playwright named Tom Stoppard.

He submitted a play called “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” to the university’s “New Plays Project,” but the committee decided it was only “mildly interested” in the work and rejected it.

Instead, the play went to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and then on to take London by storm, and UC Davis lost the opportunity to present the world premiere of a play that today is acclaimed as a modern dramatic absurdist masterpiece.

But “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” is finally making its UCD premiere on the university’s main stage.

Stoppard’s play is “Hamlet” inside out, with the minor Shakespearean characters taking center stage and Hamlet and his weird family becoming bit players, who wander briefly through the scenes.

While it seems as if Rosencrantz (Mitchell Vanlandingham) and Guildenstern (Will Klundt) may be backstage watching the play from the wings, in truth we aren’t really sure where they are … but then they aren’t sure where they are or what they’re doing there either.

In fact, the pair spend most of the show trying to figure out where they are and what is going on, in a world that doesn’t make much sense to them.

The play raises questions about who controls our lives: Do we really exercise free will, or is everything preordained and are we only filling out a script that was written for us, but that we haven’t been able to read yet?

Vanlandingham and Klundt are beautifully matched, so similar to each other visually that it’s difficult to remember which is which. Sometimes it seems that even the two of them aren’t quite sure. But they have a warm, friendly relationship, which at one point caused an inadvertent audience reaction, followed by a self-conscious ripple of laughter that rolled through the house.

The scene shifts to Elsinore Castle, where the pair encounter a group called The Tragedians, led by The Player (an outstanding performance by Bobby August Jr.), who explains that they specialize in sexual performances, which they proceed to demonstrate in graphic, but very funny, detail.

The ever-present specter of death is personified in the number of ways to die, which the Tragedians demonstrate, and which our two principal characters don’t seem to realize is a warning about their ultimate end.

Director Barakiva, scenic designer Kourtney Lampedechio and costume designer Maggie Chan worked well on creating the black, white and gray limbo in which Rosencrantz and Guidenstern exist. This becomes a vibrant display of color at the end of the play, which is also the end of the real play itself.

Sound designer Dan Cato Wilson deserves special mention especially for his sea sounds in Act 3, when the characters find themselves at sea, under attack by pirates.

While this show can be enjoyed on its own merits, if you feel your Hamlet is a little rusty, it wouldn’t hurt to brush up your Shakespeare before coming to the theater so you can more fully enjoy all the bon mots and wordplay.

This is one play that is not so much about the conclusion but what happens along the way.

On the Razzle

Tom Stoppard’s “On the Razzle,” currently presented at the Veterans Memorial Theater by Acme Theater Company, is the story of two store clerks who decide to go out on the town (“on the razzle”) while their boss is going to a parade and then meeting his fiancee who runs a women’s dress shop. Accidentally, the two guys stumble into the very same dress shop, while trying to hide from their boss. They misrepresent their identities to the dress shop owner and her friend, the women convince them to take them out to dinner at a big fancy restaurant (for which they have no money to pay).

Uh. Haven’t we seen this before? With music?

Well, yes, we have. Actually the original idea for this play came from a 19th century Austrian farce (“Einen Fux will er sich machen “) which spawned Thornton Wilder’s “The Matchmaker” in 1938 which again spawned Michael Stewart and Jerry Herman’s “Hello, Dolly!”in 1968. “On the Razzle” (1981) takes much of the plot of “Matchmaker,” but eliminates the matchmaker herself, so you will find no Dolly Levi, but much of the rest of the plot elements will be very familiar, with a little “Shop Around the Corner” (or “You’ve Got Mail,” depending on your age) thrown in for good measure.

The production, directed by Daniel “Pheelyks” Guttenberg, marks the new era in Acme history, with the retirement of founder David Burmester, who (wrote and) directed his last Acme play in May. In fact, this was the very first opening night of an Acme play I’ve attended where Burmester was not in the audience.

The Stoppard play is very funny, replete with puns and spoonerisms. Crystal clear diction and impeccable timing are necessary to get maximum effect and sadly, this was not always the case with the young cast.

Egypt Howard has the role of Herr Zangler, the tongue twisted shop owner going off to meet his fiancee in the big city. Ms. Howard did well conveying the part of a gruff old man, but so much of her dialog was rushed and muffled that one had to strain to get the humor, much of which was unfortunately lost. This is particularly disappointing in the opening scene, which needs to be performed with the timing and clarity of a stand-up comedian.

I thought perhaps her problem was that the lines were too rushed until Alex Kravitz came on stage as Weinberl, Zangler’s top clerk. Kravitz’s delivery was equally as rapid fire, but every word crystal clear, every joke hitting the mark.

Kane Chai, as Christopher, Weinberl’s assistant, is likewise wonderful, skillfully handling the lines and successfully getting the most out of the humor of his role.

Delany Pelz as Melchior, the “new man” that Zangler hires, occasionally muffles her lines, but her stage presence is so electric that it really doesn’t matter. We get the humor whether the words are crisp or not...and most of the time her delivery is just fine.

Torin Lusebrink, playing Sonders, the debt-ridden suitor of Zangler’s niece, Marie, is a very promising young performer. He has an easy manner on stage and is one of those actors you enjoy watching.

Emily Tracy, always lovely to watch, plays Frau Fischer, the widow who has her eye on Weinberl and who has a surprise or two up her sleeve.

Pabo Frias has the small role of the lecherous Coachman, lusting after every woman he sees (“is she a go-er?”) with an inordinate fascination for breasts (“are they round like apples, or pointed like pears?”). He was funny in the role, but I would like to have seen it played a bit broader.

Vivian Breckenridge is very funny as the French maid Lisette, who is having a liaison in the kitchen with the Coachman, but we only know it from her assorted stages of dishabille as she runs to answer the front door.

Others in the cast include Carrie Miller as Madame Knorr, Kathleen Johnston as Zangler’s niece Marie, Anna Eckert-Kramer as Gertrude, Emma Kurtz as Miss Blumenblatt, Hannah May as the Foreigner, Sean Olivares as the tailor Hupfer, Danielle Wogulis as Phillipine, Jeremy Reinhard as the Constable, and GG Gilbert-Igelsrud as the Ragamuffin.

John Ramos’ set design consists of a huge white platform with a building wall in the middle, which allowed easy change of scenery by rotating the platform (also fun to see the colorful costumes against the white while the cast was changing scenes)

This first outing without Burmester at the helm shows that its founder has left Acme in good hands. The show could use a little work on delivery in spots, but is still a very funny, very enjoyable production.