Third and final act begins! As I was counting out the pages to read for this entry, I realized that I only have around 30 pages left until the end of the play. Anywho, let's jump right in.
GUIL: Well, we're here, aren't we?
ROS: Are we? I can't see a thing.
GUIL: You can still think, can't you?
This distinctly reminds me of the words of Rene Descartes: "I think, therefore I am." Piece of philosophy in a philosophical text, fittingly enough.
ROS: We're on a boat. (Pause.) Dark, isn't it?
GUIL: Not for night.
ROS: No, not for night.
GUIL: Dark for day.
(Pause.)
ROS: Oh yes, it's dark for day.
Interesting little bit of banter here. Seems to be a play on perception.
GUIL: We must have gone north, of course.
ROS: Off course?
This, however, is a play on words. And the whole thing is a play on death.
Yes, I'm very fond of boats myself. I like the way they're-contained. You don't have to worry about which way to go, or whether to go at all-the question doesn't arise, because you're on a boat, aren't you? Boats are safe areas in the game of tag ... the players will hold their positions until the music starts.... I think I'll spend most of my life on boats.
Odd speech from Guildenstern here. It seems possibly contradictory to his character up until this point? Until now, he'd been the one asking the big questions and exploring things, but now he's content with a constrained environment. Also, the irony in that last line.
(GUIL meanwhile has been resuming his own theme - looking out over the audience - )
Free to move, speak, extemporise, and yet. We have not been cut loose. Our truancy is defined by one fixed star, and our drift represents merely a slight chance of angle to it: we may seize the moment, toss it around while the moment pass, a short dash here, an exploration there, but we are brought round full circle to face again the single immutable fact - that we, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, are taking Hamlet to England.
There's the Guil we know and love! That didn't last too long. This seems like a very self-aware moment here; he's acknowledging the futility of their input as the plot keeps moving forward regardless of what they do...
Give us this day our daily cue.
I haven't been keeping up with 100% of these, but Guil says this a lot. It's always with a different word at the end, ranging from a mask, a week, a round, and now finally a cue. Aside from, again, absurdist repetition, it serves as a sort of statement that agrees with his previous quote, their lives throughout the play have been very cyclical. The two talk, something plot-related involving other characters happens, Guil will spout of his sort of catchphrase, repeat.
(GUIL taps a hand, changes his mind, taps the other, and ROS
inadvertently reveals that he has a coin in both fists.)
GUIL: You had money in both hands.
ROS (embarrassed): Yes.
GUIL: Every time?
ROS: Yes.
GUIL: What's the point of that?
ROS (pathetic): I wanted to make you happy.
Aww.
ROS: We take Hamlet to the English king, we hand over the letter - what
then?
GUIL: There may be something in the letter to keep us going a bit.
ROS: And if not?
GUIL: Then that's it-we're finished.
ROS: At a loose end?
GUIL: Yes.
GUIL: Yes... yes... (Rallying.) But you don't believe anything till it happens. And it has all happened. Hasn't it?
ROS: We drift down time, clutching at straws. But what good's a brick to a drowning man?
Really nice lines here. Not too sure about this, but could the "it has all happened before" possibly be a reference to the looping time theory? You know, how time moves in a more circular pattern rather than just a straight line... Also goes back to Guildenstern's view of the duo's cyclical life.
We don't question, we don't doubt. We perform.
ACTUALLY, he kind of is. I mean, if they truly weren't questioning or doubting, this play would be much shorter... They do ask questions and they do doubt, but they don't really do anything to stray from the path of what they're told to do... Kind of a paradox.
Okay, so Ros & Guil read the letter and find out that the king has been ordered to kill Hamlet. And we see Ros say: "We're his friends." Kind of a heartbreaking moment, and also interesting to note. In Hamlet, it's assumed that the duo never read either of the letters and are totally oblivious to the whole scheme. However, in this rendition, it makes it a lot more emotional to see the two suddenly discover their friend's fate and get torn up about it.
On that note, I'll leave the conclusion for next time... I'll prepare myself. This obviously isn't going to end well.
Okay, so Ros & Guil read the letter and find out that the king has been ordered to kill Hamlet. And we see Ros say: "We're his friends." Kind of a heartbreaking moment, and also interesting to note. In Hamlet, it's assumed that the duo never read either of the letters and are totally oblivious to the whole scheme. However, in this rendition, it makes it a lot more emotional to see the two suddenly discover their friend's fate and get torn up about it.
On that note, I'll leave the conclusion for next time... I'll prepare myself. This obviously isn't going to end well.