... all the action has all taken place within the players' wagon. The world of Elsinore, in other words, rather than being the real political world into which Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and the Players move, is here a creation of the players. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have, in effect, purchased their way into a production of Hamlet and, because of the logic of the script (pages of which are blowing through many scenes) must move inexorably to their deaths, as it is written. *
* Stoppard has characterized his own work as "retreating with style from the chaos."
... What exactly is chaos? The name "chaos theory" comes from the fact that the systems that the theory describes are apparently disordered, but chaos theory is really about finding the underlying order in apparently random data.
... You didn't like the second law of thermodynamics anyway, Anatoly? Entropy, no, thanks.
... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fate Oedipus = Destiny, an inevitable course of events ? [ + Hamlet ]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortune -- From Latin fortuna meaning "fate" or "luck". In its plural form fortunae, it meant "possessions" which also gave fortune the meaning of "riches". http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fortune
... filmplus.org/plays/R-G.html *** 2008 [scenes]
THE CAST
Rosencrantz
Guildenstern
The Player
Alfred
Tragedians
Hamlet
Ophelia
Claudius
Gertrude
Polonius
Horatio
Ambassador
Soldier
ARTISTIC STAFF
Director
Scenic Designer
Costume Designer
Lighting Designer
Sound Designer
Stage Manager
Dramaturg
How to establish that R and G know/suspect the bad end from the moment they were asked to come? The first scene is about life or death. And the death is the answer!
They were paid for their lives.
What to do now?
Here are the players. To play!
... Eliot:
No, I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; withal, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed almost ridiculous--
Almost, at times, the Fool.
... PLAYER: There's a design at work in all art--surely you know that? events must play themselves out to aesthetic, moral and logical conclusion.
GUIL: And what's that, in this case?
PLAYER: It never varies--we aim at the point where everyone who is marked for death dies.
GUIL: Marked?
PLAYER: Between 'just deserts' and 'tragic irony' we are given quite a lot of scope for our particular talent. Generally speaking, things have gone about as far as they can possible go when things have got about as bad as they reasonably get.
GUIL: Who decides?
PLAYER: Decides? It is written.
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