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Club Director's Notes

Sweeney Todd the Barber Semi Detached An Evening of Stoppard The Arsonists Man of the Moment Oh! What a Lovely War Only Free Men

• An Evening of Stoppard

• 12th Dec - 20th Dec
• Written by: Tom Stoppard
• Directed by: Victoria Thompson
• Performance Times: Fri 19:45, Sat 19:45, Mon 19:45, Tue 19:45, Wed 19:45, Thu 19:45, Fri 19:45, Sat 14:45, Sat 19:45

Directors Notes

Tonight we explore some of the varied aspects of the work of Tom Stoppard in two plays, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, excerpts from which we begin with, by kind permission of Tom Stoppard himself, and The Real Inspector Hound, which we play, in its entirety, after the interval.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead was Stoppard’s first professional play, staged in 1967. He freely admits it was largely influenced by Waiting for Godot and says, “it is a combination of my own voice and what was in the air around me. I don’t even know what my voice really is to this day”. This theme is echoed by the two main characters throughout.

In selecting these plays which are both about the nature of identity, we seek to show the comedy as well as the tragedy of losing your self and trying to be either what you are not, or making your own existence only have real meaning through relationship to someone else.

So we find Rosencrantz and Guildenstern first in the company of one whose existence IS apparently solely through the playing of roles, namely the Player.
The second extract from the play finds our heroes aboard ship already showing signs of their own disintegration as they discover, somewhat belatedly, that they are being used by Claudius for his own purposes.

After this excerpt Hamlet switches letters (unseen) which results in a different denouement from that which they expect; revealed by the opening of a second letter.

The question posed throughout is, ‘What is the reason for our existence?’ and is there an independent being present when our roles in life apparently cease? The last section of the play asks whether death has already claimed our heroes and is it, ‘very nice’?
In The Real Inspector Hound the question of identity continues, Stoppard himself says that the play is about wish fulfilment, and perhaps we should heed the Chinese saying, ‘Be careful what you wish for.’
We were all saddened to lose another committed and long term member of LTC, Cliff Skeet.

Cliff was a huge fan of Stoppard and directed \'The Real Inspector Hound\' at the Theatre.

His dedication to work, regular appearance at Working group as well as a history of directing, designing and acting at the Club, together with Joan, is another hard act to follow.

Cliff was going to review this production, and maybe will still be doing so!
This production is dedicated to his work and achievements on LTC's behalf."
'Da iawn' Cliff.