Reps to stage Stoppard’s award-winning drama

The play features two of the characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and is described as being “a fabulously inventive tale of Hamlet as told from the worm’s-eye view of the bewildered Rosencrantz and Guildenstern — a Shakespearean Laurel and Hardy.” With roles reversed, these two characters are the leads, while other Hamlet characters take minor roles.
Directed by Kevin Hanssen, it features a young cast and is an opportunity for Repteens to put into action the theory of acting and other aspects of stagecraft and stage work they have learned in their weekly training sessions. Repteens is a group run by The Repertory Players for young people between the ages of 13 and 19
Said Hanssen: “The play is full of fast-moving, witty dialogue and humour, as the two unlikely stars discuss many issues of life, unaware of their impending doom.”
In support of the director and cast are producers Kyla Render and Chipo Chikara, with design done by Michelle Mesley and Richard King and facilitated by the Repteens themselves. Also supporting the production are the British Council and Celsys.
The play, written by one of Britain’s foremost modern playwrights, made its debut at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1966 and has been a success ever since.
Its Broadway staging was a Tony Award winner and was play of the year for 1990. It has been running at Reps since Tuesday and will close on Saturday with evening performances at 7pm and an additional matinee performance on Saturday at 2.30pm.
Kevin Hanssen is one of Zimbabwe’s leading directors, with local and international experience dating back more than 15 years.
In recent years he has received much acclaim for the regular Impro Show productions in which cast members take on improvised roles and action along the lines of television shows like Whose Line Is It Anyway? The next of these will be staged in Reps’ Theatre Upstairs in February.