Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
1996. Year 11. My memory of that year is that it was always overcast. When I try to think of sunlight all I remember is the girl I had a huge crush on at the time, her face was never in shadow. It was the year my chronic fatigue was at its worst and life was all a bit hard and confusing. It was also a transformative year. I wrote most of our drama class’s recreation of the Eureka Stockade, I studied Hamlet and I discovered Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead . Suddenly, amidst the bleak mists of illness teenage and addlement I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to write plays. I don’t think I can overestimate the impact Ros & Guil had on me at the time. It was hilarious and demonstrated a high level of wit, but it also had these speeches of philosophical quandaries. Quite simply it was breathtaking and life-changing. But I never saw it performed – live anyway and the film is a different beast, still brilliant but different, and well, it’s a film so it can’t b...