We Review: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead @ Chamber Theatre

God knows we love that funny, brainy ole Tom Stoppard. If you're not an Oxford undergraduate or an actor of bit parts, though, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is just likeable, a diversion about the way we divert ourselves from facing death. Stoppard deploys his fearsome rhetorical skills, disembowels Hamlet, ponders probability, and argues mightily that death "is not." (So you can't, strictly speaking, be dead.) You can't keep Stoppard fans away from this kind of stuff, and Saturday night was sold out. The show runs through November 17, Thursday through Saturdays, at the Chamber Theatre in Odd Fellows Hall. Tickets are just $12.

The story is Waiting for Godot meets Hamlet -- two of Hamlet's bit parts, courtiers named Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, find themselves existing "backstage" solely for the purpose of popping onstage every so often as a plot -- unknowable to them -- calls for. In Ghostlight Theatrical's production, Patrick Allcorn's Guildenstern and Jeff Pierson's Rosencrantz are long on existential confusion and short on "being there."

The two look fine for the part and occasionally act it, but their partnering hasn't jelled yet. We're not sure why director Beth Raas allows Jeff Pierson to mock-cry like a Stan Laurel imitator, but we're firmly against the decision. We'd also liked to have seen a more caffeinated Patrick Allcorn. His Guildenstern should be a trapped tiger -- of an obsessive logician. We lost a little patience with their slack, self-indulgent delivery of what should be the rapid-fire wit of an Odd Couple pairing. It's early in the run, so we'll keep our fingers crossed that the two find a way to make their impending deaths matter to each other. At 2-1/2 hours long, with two intermissions, the play doesn't need to feel longer.

Colleen Robertson's Player -- the actor/director in a traveling troupe -- shows up the leads every time she shows up. She's meant to, it's just wonderful that Robertson pulls it off. She's nervy, knowing, and bristling with survival instinct. Her Tragedians do terrific work, and director Raas gives them plenty to do. The supporting cast of Hamlet leads made the most of their parts, too. Jalyn Green's cocky, sullen, scheming Hamlet made waves, while as Claudius, Dennis Kleinsmith had us hanging on every syllable, his lines dripping with ominous regal diction. Renee Bourrut's Ophelia had a whole novel's worth of characterization behind her -- Emma Bovary or Anna Karenina we think.

Patrick Allcorn as Guildenstern and Jeff Pierson as Rosencrantz. Photo by Chelsie Hanner.