British Drama

1. The comedy of manner

Definition : cerebral form of dramatic comedy that depicts and often satirizes the manners and affectations of a contemporary society. A comedy of manners is concerned with social usage and the question of whether or not characters meet certain social standards. Often the governing social standard is morally trivial but exacting. The plot of such a comedy, usually concerned with an illicit love affair or similarly scandalous matter, is subordinate to the plays brittle atmosphere, witty dialogue, and pungent commentary on human foibles.

In England the comedy of manners had its great day during the Restoration period. Although influenced by Ben Jonsons comedy of humours, the Restoration comedy of manners was lighter, defter, and more vivacious in tone. Playwrights declared themselves against affected wit and acquired follies and satirized these qualities in caricature characters with label-like names. The tradition of elaborate, artificial plotting and epigrammatic dialogue was carried on by the Anglo-Irish playwright Oscar Wilde in Lady Windermeres Fan (1892) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). In the 20th century the comedy of manners reappeared in the witty, sophisticated drawing-room plays of the British dramatists Nol Coward and Somerset Maugham and the Americans Philip Barry and S.N. Behrman.

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST Jack Worthing, the plays protagonist, is an important man of the community in Hertfordshire, where he is guardian to Cecily Cardew, the pretty, eighteen-yearold granddaughter of the late Thomas Cardew, who found and adopted Jack when he was a baby. In Hertfordshire, Jack has responsibilities: he is a major landowner and justice of the peace, with tenants, farmers, and a number of servants and other employees all dependent on him. For years, he has also pretended to have an irresponsible black-sheep brother named Ernest who leads a scandalous life in pursuit of pleasure and is always getting into trouble of a sort that requires Jack to rush grimly off to his assistance. In fact, Ernest is merely Jacks alibi, a phantom that allows him to disappear for days at a time and do as he likes. No one but Jack knows that he himself is Ernest. Ernest is the name Jack goes by in London, which is where he really goes on these occasionsprobably to pursue the very sort of behavior he pretends to disapprove of in his imaginary brother. Jack is in love with Gwendolen Fairfax, the cousin of his best friend, Algernon Moncrieff. When the play opens, Algernon, who knows Jack as Ernest, has begun to suspect something, having found an inscription inside Jacks cigarette case 1

addressed to Uncle Jack from someone who refers to herself as little Cecily. Algernon suspects that Jack may be leading a double life, a practice he seems to regard as indispensable to modern life. He calls a person who leads a double life a Bunburyist, after a nonexistent friend he pretends to have, a chronic invalid named Bunbury, to whom he pretends to give help because he is ill,whenever he wants to get out of some tiresome social obligation. At the beginning of Act I, Jack drops in unexpectedly on Algernon and announces that he intends to propose to Gwendolen. Algernon confronts him with the cigarette case and forces him to come clean, demanding to know who Jack and Cecily are. Jack confesses that his name isnt really Ernest and that Cecily is his ward, a responsibility imposed on him by his adoptive fathers will. Jack also tells Algernon about his fictional brother. Jack says hes been thinking of killing off this fake brother, since Cecily has been showing too active an interest in him. Without meaning to, Jack describes Cecily in terms that catch Algernons attention and make him even more interested in her than he is already. Gwendolen and her mother, Lady Bracknell, arrive, which gives Jack an opportunity to propose to Gwendolen. Jack is delighted to discover that Gwendolen returns his affections, but he is alarmed to learn that Gwendolen is fixated on the name Ernest, which she says inspires absolute confidence. Gwendolen makes clear that she would not consider marrying a man who was not named Ernest. Lady Bracknell interviews Jack to determine his eligibility as a possible son-in-law, and during this interview she asks about his family background. When Jack explains that he has no idea who his parents were and that he was found, by the man who adopted him, in a handbag in the cloakroom at Victoria Station, Lady Bracknell is scandalized. She forbids the match between Jack and Gwendolen and sweeps out of the house. In Act II, Algernon shows up at Jacks country estate posing as Jacks brother Ernest. Meanwhile, Jack, having decided that Ernest has outlived his usefulness, arrives home in deep mourning, full of a story about Ernest having died suddenly in Paris. He is enraged to find Algernon there masquerading as Ernest but has to go along with the charade. If he doesnt, his own lies and deceptions will be revealed. While Jack changes out of his mourning clothes, Algernon, who has fallen hopelessly in love with Cecily, asks her to marry him. He is surprised to discover that Cecily already considers that they are engaged, and he is charmed when she reveals that her fascination with Uncle Jacks brother led her to invent an elaborate romance between herself and him several months ago. Algernon is less enchanted to learn that part of Cecilys interest in him derives from the name Ernest, which, unconsciously echoing Gwendolen, she says inspires absolute confidence. Algernon goes off in search of Dr. Chasuble, the local rector, to see about getting himself christened Ernest. Meanwhile, Gwendolen arrives, having decided to pay 2

Jack an unexpected visit. Gwendolen is shown into the garden, where Cecily orders tea and attempts to play hostess. Cecily has no idea how Gwendolen figures into Jacks life, and Gwendolen, for her part, has no idea who Cecily is. Gwendolen initially thinks Cecily is a visitor to the Manor House and is disconcerted to learn that Cecily is Mr. Worthings ward. She notes that Ernest has never mentioned having a ward, and Cecily explains that it is not Ernest Worthing who is her guardian but his brother Jack and, in fact, that she is engaged to be married to Ernest Worthing. Gwendolen points out that this is impossible as she herself is engaged to Ernest Worthing. The tea party degenerates into a war of manners. Jack and Algernon arrive toward the climax of this confrontation, each having separately made arrangements with Dr. Chasuble to be christened Ernest later that day. Each of the young ladies points out that the other has been deceived: Cecily informs Gwendolen that her fianc is really named Jack and Gwendolen informs Cecily that hers is really called Algernon. The two women demand to know where Jacks brother Ernest is, since both of them are engaged to be married to him. Jack is forced to admit that he has no brother and that Ernest is a complete fiction. Both women are shocked and furious, and they retire to the house arm in arm. Act III takes place in the drawing room of the Manor House, where Cecily and Gwendolen have retired. When Jack and Algernon enter from the garden, the two women confront them. Cecily asks Algernon why he pretended to be her guardians brother. Algernon tells her he did it in order to meet her. Gwendolen asks Jack whether he pretended to have a brother in order to come into London to see her as often as possible, and she interprets his evasive reply as an affirmation. The women are somewhat appeased but still concerned over the issue of the name. However, when Jack and Algernon tell Gwendolen and Cecily that they have both made arrangements to be christened Ernest that afternoon, all is forgiven and the two pairs of lovers embrace. At this moment, Lady Bracknells arrival is announced. Lady Bracknell has followed Gwendolen from London, having bribed Gwendolens maid to reveal her destination. She demands to know what is going on. Gwendolen again informs Lady Bracknell of her engagement to Jack, and Lady Bracknell reiterates that a union between them is out of the question. Algernon tells Lady Bracknell of his engagement to Cecily, prompting her to inspect Cecily and inquire into her social connections, which she does in a routine and patronizing manner that infuriates Jack. He replies to all her questions with a mixture of civility and sarcasm, withholding until the last possible moment the information that Cecily is actually worth a great deal of money and stands to inherit still more when she comes of age. At this, Lady Bracknell becomes genuinely interested. Jack informs Lady Bracknell that, as Cecilys legal guardian, he refuses to give his consent to her union with Algernon. Lady Bracknell suggests that the two young people simply wait until Cecily comes of age, and Jack points out that under the 3

terms of her grandfathers will, Cecily does not legally come of age until she is thirty-five. Lady Bracknell asks Jack to reconsider, and he points out that the matter is entirely in her own hands. As soon as she consents to his marriage to Gwendolen, Cecily can have his consent to marry Algernon. However, Lady Bracknell refuses to entertain the notion. She and Gwendolen are on the point of leaving when Dr. Chasuble arrives and happens to mention Cecilys governess, Miss Prism. At this, Lady Bracknell starts and asks that Miss Prism be sent for. When the governess arrives and sees Lady Bracknell, she begins to look guilty . Lady Bracknell accuses her of having left her sisters house twenty-eight years before with a baby and never returned. She demands to know where the baby is. Miss Prism confesses she doesnt know, explaining that she lost the baby, having absentmindedly placed it in a handbag in which she had meant to place the manuscript for a novel she had written. Jack asks what happened to the bag, and Miss Prism says she left it in the cloakroom of a railway station. Jack presses her for further details and goes racing offstage, returning a few moments later with a large handbag. When Miss Prism confirms that the bag is hers, Jack throws himself on her with a cry of Mother! It takes a while before the situation is sorted out, but before too long we understand that Jack is not the illegitimate child of Miss Prism but the legitimate child of Lady Bracknells sister and, therefore, Algernons older brother. Furthermore, Jack had been originally christened Ernest John. All these years Jack has unwittingly been telling the truth: Ernest is his name, as is Jack, and he does have an unprincipled younger brotherAlgernon. Again the couples embrace, Miss Prism and Dr. Chasuble follow suit, and Jack acknowledges that he now understands the vital Importance of Being Earnest. Oscar Wilde quotes: '' One should be a work of art or wear one'' ''True friends stab you in the front.'' ''Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.'' ''Women are made to be loved, not understood.'' ''The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it... I can resist everything but temptation.''

OSCAR WILDE (1854 Dublin-1900 Paris-irish writer and -became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s -only one novel,The Picture of Dorian Gray -fluent in French and German 4

poet

-imprisoned for homosexuality,the play(the importance of being earnest)came out the same year(1896)when the scandal broke out -O.W. Emphasises the fact that people too focused on the looks,they become ridiculous -they start to believe their own lies -the play is full of oxymorones and paradoxes -comedy of society/manner -O.W enjoyed the ridiculous exagerations of society -all the characters speak in the same way-> cardboard characters -mistaken identity -artificial plot

2. Melodrama and modern theatre Definition : sentimental drama with an improbable plot that concerns the vicissitudes suffered by the virtuous at the hands of the villainous but ends happily with virtue triumphant. Featuring stock characters such as the noble hero, the long-suffering heroine, and the cold-blooded villain, the melodrama focusses not on character development but on sensational incidents and spectacular staging. In music, melodrama signifies lines spoken to a musical accompaniment. During the 19th century, music and singing were gradually eliminated. As technical developments in the theatre made greater realism possible, more emphasis was given to the spectacular e.g.,snowstorms, shipwrecks, battles, train wrecks, conflagrations, earthquakes, and horse races. Among the best known and most representative of the melodramas popular in England and the United States are The Octoroon (1859) and The Colleen Bawn (1860), both by Dion Boucicault. With the growing sophistication of the theatre in the early 20th century, the theatrical melodrama declined in popularity. It was a vigorous form, though, in motion picture adventure serials until the advent of sound. The exaggerated gestures, dramatic chases, emotional scenes, simple flat characters, and impossible situations were later revived and parodied. Melodrama makes up a good part of contemporary television drama.

Caesar and Cleopatra George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 2 November 1950) was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. He was also an essayist, novelist and short story writer. Nearly all his writings address prevailing social problems, but have a vein of comedy which makes their stark themes more palatable. Issues which engaged Shaw's attention included 5

education, marriage, religion, government, health care, and class privilege. He became an accomplished orator in the furtherance of its causes, which included gaining equal rights for men and women, alleviating abuses of the working class, rescinding private ownership of productive land, and promoting healthy lifestyles. For a short time he was active in local politics, serving on the London County Council. Shaw died there, aged 94, from chronic problems exacerbated by injuries he incurred by falling from a ladder. He is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize in Literature (1925) and an Oscar (1938), for his contributions to literature and for his work on the film Pygmalion (adaptation of his play of the same name), respectively. Caesar and Cleopatra,written in 1898, was first staged in 1901 and first published with Captain Brassbound's Conversion and The Devil's Disciple in his 1901 collection, Three Plays for Puritans. It was first performed at Newcastle upon Tyne on March 15, 1899. London production was at the Savoy Theatre in 1907. The play has a prologue and an "Alternative to the Prologue". The prologue consists of the Egyptian God Ra addressing the audience directly, as if he could see them in the theater. He says that Pompey represents the old Rome and Caesar represents the new Rome. The gods favored Caesar, according to Ra, because he "lived the life they had given him boldly". Ra recounts the conflict between Caesar and Pompey, their battle at Pharsalia, and Pompey's eventual assassination in Egypt at the hands of Lucius Septimius. In "An Alternative to the Prologue", the captain of Cleopatra's guard is warned that Caesar has landed and is invading Egypt. Cleopatra has been driven into Syria by her brother, Ptolemy, with whom she is vying for the Egyptian throne. The messenger warns that Caesar's conquest is inevitable and irresistible. A Nubian watchman flees to Cleopatra's palace and warns those inside that Caesar and his armies are less than an hour away. The guards, knowing of Caesar's weakness for women, plan to persuade him to proclaim Cleopatrawho may be controllableEgypt's ruler instead of Ptolemy. They try to locate her, but are told by Cleopatra's nurse, Ftatateeta, that she has run away. Act I opens with Cleopatra sleeping between the paws of a Sphinx. Caesar, wandering lonely in the desert night, comes upon the sphinx and speaks to it profoundly. Cleopatra wakes and, still unseen, replies. At first Caesar imagines the sphinx is speaking in a girlish voice, then, when Cleopatra appears, that he is experiencing a dream or, if he is awake, a touch of madness. She, not recognizing Caesar, thinks him a nice old man and tells him of her childish fear of Caesar and the Romans. Caesar urges bravery when she must face the conquerors, then escorts her to her palace. Cleopatra reluctantly agrees to maintain a queenly presence, but greatly fears that Caesar will eat her anyway. When the Roman guards arrive and hail Caesar, Cleopatra suddenly realizes he has been with her all along. She sobs in relief, and falls into his arms. Act II. In a hall on the first floor of the royal palace in Alexandria, Caesar meets King Ptolemy Dionysus (aged ten), his tutor Theodotus (very aged), Achillas (general of Ptolemy's troops), and Pothinus (his guardian). Caesar greets all with courtesy and kindness, but inflexibly demands a tribute whose amount disconcerts the Egyptians. As an inducement, Caesar says he will settle the dispute between the claimants for the Egyptian throne by letting Cleopatra and Ptolemy reign jointly. However, the rivalry exists because, even though the two are siblings and already married in accordance with the royal law, they detest each other with a mutual antipathy no less murderous for being childish. Each 6

claims sole rulership. Caesar's solution is acceptable to none and his concern for Ptolemy makes Cleopatra fiercely jealous. The conference deteriorates into a dispute, with the Egyptians threatening military action. Caesar, with two legions (three thousand soldiers and a thousand horsemen), has no fear of the Egyptian army but learns Achillas also commands a Roman army of occupation, left after a previous Roman incursion, which could overwhelm his relatively small contingent. As a defensive measure, Caesar orders Rufio, his military aide, to take over the palace, a theatre adjacent to it, and Pharos, an island in the harbor accessible from the palace via a causeway that divides the harbor into eastern and western sections. From Pharos, which has a defensible lighthouse at its eastmost tip, those of Caesar's ships anchored on the east side of the harbor can return to Rome. His ships on the west side are to be burnt at once. Britannus, Caesar's secretary, proclaims the king and courtiers prisoners of war, but Caesar, to the dismay of Rufio, allows the captives to depart. Only Cleopatra (with her retinue), fearing Ptolemy's associates, and Pothinus (for reasons of his own), choose to remain with Caesar. The others all depart. Caesar, intent on developing his strategy, tries to dismiss all other matters but is interrupted by Cleopatra's nagging for attention. He indulges her briefly while she speaks amorously of Mark Antony, who restored her father to his throne when she was twelve years old. Her gushing about the youth and beauty of Mark Antony are unflattering to Caesar, who is middle-aged and balding. Caesar nevertheless, impervious to jealousy, makes Cleopatra happy by promising to send Mark Anthony back to Egypt. As she leaves, a wounded soldier comes to report Achillus, with his Roman army, is at hand and that the citizenry is attacking Caesar's soldiers. A siege is imminent. Watching from a balcony, Rufio discovers the ships he was ordered to destroy have been torched by Achillo's forces and are already burning. Meanwhile, Theodotus, the savant, arrives distraught, anguished because fire from the blazing ships has spread to the Alexandrian library. Caesar does not sympathize, saying it is better that the Egyptians should live their lives than dream them away with the help of books. As a practicality, he notes the Egyptian firefighters will be diverted from attacking Caesar's soldiers. At scene's end, Cleopatra and Britannus help Caesar don his armor and he goes forth to battle. Act III. A Roman sentinel stationed on the quay in front of the palace looks intently, across the eastern harbor, to the west, for activity at the Pharos lighthouse, now captured and occupied by Caesar. He is watching for signs of an impending counter-attack by Egyptian forces arriving via ship and by way of the Heptastadion (a stone causeway spanning the five miles of open water between the mainland and Pharos Island). The sentinel's vigil is interrupted by Ftatateeta (Cleopatra's nurse) and Apollodorus the Sicilian (a patrician amateur of the arts), accompanied by a retinue of porters carrying a bale of carpets, from which Cleopatra is to select a gift appropriate for Caesar. Cleopatra emerges from the palace, shows little interest in the carpets, and expresses a desire to visit Caesar at the lighthouse. The sentinel tells her she is a prisoner and orders her back inside the palace. Cleopatra is enraged, and Apollodorus, as her champion, engages in swordplay with the sentinel. A centurion intervenes and avers Cleopatra will not be allowed outside the palace until Caesar gives the order. She is sent back to the palace, where she may select a carpet for delivery to Caesar. Apollodorus, who is not a prisoner, will deliver it since he is free to travel in areas behind the Roman lines. He hires a small boat, with a single boatmen, for the purpose. 7

The porters leave the palace bearing a rolled carpet. They complain about its weight, but only Ftatateeta, suffering paroxysms of anxiety, knows Cleopatra is hidden in the bundle. The sentinel, however, alerted by Ftatateeta's distress, becomes suspicious and attempts, unsuccessfully, to recall the boat after it departs. Meanwhile, Rufio, eating dates and resting after the day's battle, hears Caesar speaking somberly of his personal misgivings and predicting they will lose the battle because age has rendered him inept. Rufio diagnoses Caesar's woes as signs of hunger and gives him dates to eat. Caesar's outlook brightens as he eats them. He is himself again when Britannus exultantly approaches bearing a heavy bag containing incriminating letters that have passed between Pompey's associates and their army, now occupying Egypt. Caesar scorns to read them, deeming it better to convert his enemies to friends than to waste his time with prosecutions; he casts the bag into the sea. As Cleopatra's boat arrives, the falling bag breaks its prow and it quickly sinks, barely allowing time for Appolodorus to drag the carpet and its queenly contents safe ashore. Caesar unrolls the carpet and discovers Cleopatra, who is distressed because of the rigors of her journey and even more so when she finds Caesar too preoccupied with military matters to accord her much attention. Matters worsen when Britannus, who has been observing the movements of the Egyptian army, reports the enemy now controls the causeway and is also approaching rapidly across the island. Swimming to a Roman ship in the eastern harbor becomes the sole possibility for escape. Apollodorus dives in readily and Caesar follows, after privately instructing Rufio and Britannus to toss Cleopatra into the water so she can hang on while he swims to safety. They do so with great relish, she screaming mightily, then Rufio takes the plunge. Britannus cannot swim, so he is instructed to defend himself as well as possible until a rescue can be arranged. A friendly craft soon rescues all the swimmers. Act IV. Six months elapse with Romans and Cleopatra besieged in the palace in Alexandria. Cleopatra and Pothinus, who is a prisoner of war, discuss what will happen when Caesar eventually leaves and disagree over whether Cleopatra or Ptolemy should rule. They part; Cleopatra to be hostess at a feast prepared for Caesar and his lieutenants, and Pothinus to tell Caesar that Cleopatra is a traitress who is only using Caesar to help her gain the Egyptian throne. Caesar considers that a natural motive and is not offended. But Cleopatra is enraged at Pothinus' allegation and secretly orders her nurse, Ftatateeta, to kill him. At the feast the mood is considerably restrained by Caesar's ascetic preference for simple fare and barley water versus exotic foods and wines. However, conversation grows lively when world-weary Caesar suggests to Cleopatra they both leave political life, search out the Nile's source and a city there. Cleopatra enthusiastically agrees and, to name the city, seeks help from Ra, who is her favorite god. The festivities are interrupted by a scream, followed by a thud: Pothinus has been murdered and his body thrown from the roof down to the beach. The besieging Egyptians, both army and civilian, are enraged by the killing of Pothinus, who was a popular hero, and they begin to storm the palace. Cleopatra claims responsibility for the slaying and Caesar reproaches her for taking shortsighted vengeance, pointing out that his clemency towards Pothinus and the other prisoners has kept the enemy at bay. Doom seems inevitable, but then they learn that reinforcements, commanded by Mithridates of Pergamos have engaged the Egyptian army. With the threat diminished, Caesar draws up a battle plan and leaves to speak to the troops. Meanwhile, Rufio realizes Ftatateeta was 8

Pothinus' killer, so he kills her in turn. Cleopatra, left alone and utterly forlorn discovers the bloodied body concealed behind a curtain. Act V is an epilogue. Amidst great pomp and ceremony, Caesar prepares to leave for Rome. His forces have swept Ptolemy's armies into the Nile, and Ptolemy, himself, was drowned when his barge sank. Caesar appoints Rufio governor of the province and considers freedom for Britannus, who declines the offer in favor of remaining Caesar's servant. A conversation ensues that foreshadows Caesar's eventual assassination. As the gangplank is being extended from the quay to Caesar's ship, Cleopatra, dressed in mourning for her nurse, arrives. She accuses Rufio of murdering Ftatateeta. Rufio admits the slaying, but says it was not for the sake of punishment, revenge or justice: He killed her without malice because she was a chronic menace, to be disposed of as mere vermin. Caesar approves the execution because it was not influenced by emotion. Cleopatra remains unforgiving until Caesar renews his promise to send Mark Antony to Egypt. That renders her ecstatic as the ship starts moving out to sea. Shaw wants to prove that it was not love but politics that drew Cleopatra to Julius Caesar. He sees the Roman occupation of ancient Egypt as similar to the British occupation that was occurring during his time. Caesar understands the importance of good government, and values these things above art and love.Shaw's philosophy has often been compared to that of Nietzsche. Their shared admiration for men of action shows itself in Shaw's description of Caesar's struggle with Pompey. In the prologue, the god Ra says, "the blood and iron ye pin your faith on fell before the spirit of man; for the spirit of man is the will of the gods." A second theme, apparent both from the text of the play itself and from Shaw's lengthy notes after the play, is Shaw's belief that people have not been morally improved by civilization and technology. A line from the prologue clearly illustrates this point. The god Ra addresses the audience and says, "ye shall marvel, after your ignorant manner, that men twenty centuries ago were already just such as you, and spoke and lived as ye speak and live, no worse and no better, no wiser and no sillier." Another theme is the value of clemency. Caesar remarks that he will not stoop to vengeance when confronted with Septimius, the murderer of Pompey. Caesar throws away letters that would have identified his enemies in Rome, instead choosing to try to win them to his side. Pothinus remarks that Caesar doesn't torture his captives. At several points in the play, Caesar lets his enemies go instead of killing them. The wisdom of this approach is revealed when Cleopatra orders her nurse to kill Pothinus because of his "treachery and disloyalty" (but really because of his insults to her). This probably contrasts with historical fact. The murder enrages the Egyptian crowd, and but for Mithridates' reinforcements would have meant the death of all the protagonists. Caesar only endorses the retaliatory murder of Cleopatra's nurse because it was necessary and humane.

3. The poetic drama Definition : A play written wholly or mainly in verse. As this was the normin early drama (a tradition crowned by the works of Shakespeare),the term is usually reserved for works written since the Restoration(1660); by this time only tragedies were still composed in verse,comedies being more commonly written in prose. Poetic drama is not merely a drama which is written in verse, because prose may also be its effective medium. It is, in fact, a blending of the 9

poetic and dramatic elements in a fruitful union. Here poetry is an integral part of the play, twined with plot, character and their interplay, not an element of isolated beauty or lyricism for its own sake, as is the case with splendid lyricism in some parts of Marlowes Dr. Faustus, for example. At the same time the dramatic elements must be capable of sustaining the poetic grace and intensity. It means its themes and characters should be poetically convinced and should be larger than the average humanity and humdrum monotony of daily life, the passions and emotions permeating them should be naturally productive of the poetic expression, calculated to lift the mind of the spectator above the sphere of our ordinary joys and sorrows and send the penetrating gaze of his inner vision far down below the surface of life to the very springs of human action and human drives. Moreover, drama being so intimately bound up with the stage condition and the historic skill its practitioner must combine mastery over the poetic resources, with a real understanding of the peculiar needs and modes of the dramatic representation in the theatre. The history of the poetic drama in England is littered with the frozen anatomies of poetic plays written by the distinguished poets of the nineteenth century who failed to subordinate poetry to the general dramatic spirit and adapt the plays to the conditions and requirements of the stage.

4. The theatre of the absurd Definition: Theater of the Absurd, or absurdism, is a term coined by theater critic Martin Esslin to describe set of particular plays written in the mid-20th century, as well as later plays that were written in the same tradition. Esslin pointed to these plays as illustrative of a philosophy by Albert Camus, which says that life has no inherent meaning. Plays associated with this movement generally share several characteristics, including nonsense dialogue, repetitive or meaningless action, and non-realistic or impossible plots. In his 1961 essay, Esslin classified four playwrights as leaders of the movement: Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Arthur Adamov and Jean Genet. Later, Esslin also included British playwright Harold Pinter to this group, and classified some of the works of Tom Stoppard, Edward Albee and Jean Tardieu as also belonging to absurdist theater as well. The Theater of the Absurd movement began as experimental theater in Paris. As a result, even after the spread of the form to other country, absurdist plays were often written in French. The first large major production of an absurdist play was Jean Genet's The Maids in 1947. Ionesco'sThe Bald Soprano was first performed in 1950, and Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot, probably the best known of all such plays, premiered in January 1953. Theater of the Absurd is often called a reaction to the realism movement in the theater. Rather than try to conform as closely as possible to a concept of real life, absurdists sought to provide an unmistakably unreal experience. In an absurdist play, time and settings are generally ambiguous, if they are even defined at all. Characters are not meant to mimic real people, but instead are often metaphorical or archetypal. The guiding principle of this movement is to look at the world without any assumption of purpose. Esslin suggests that without a fixed belief system or 10

guiding principle, all actions become useless and absurd; therefore, anything that happens is permissible. SAMUEL BECKETT- KRAPPS LAST TAPE Samuel Barclay Beckett (13 April 1906 22 December 1989) was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet, who lived in Paris for most of his adult life and wrote in both English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour. Beckett is widely regarded as among the most influential writers of the 20th century. Strongly influenced by James Joyce, he is considered one of the last modernists. As an inspiration to many later writers, he is also sometimes considered one of the first postmodernists. He is one of the key writers in what Martin Esslin called the "Theatre of the Absurd". His work became increasingly minimalist in his later career. Works Beckett's career as a writer can be roughly divided into three periods: his early works, up until the end of World War II in 1945; his middle period, stretching from 1945 until the early 1960s, during which period he wrote what are probably his best-known works; and his late period, from the early 1960s until Beckett's death in 1989, during which his works tended to become shorter and his style more minimalist. KRAPPS LAST TAPE Krapp's Last Tape is a one-act play, in English, by Samuel Beckett. With a cast of one man, it was written for Northern Irish actor Patrick Magee and first titled "Magee monologue". It was inspired by Beckett's experience of listening to Magee reading extracts from Molloy and From an Abandoned Work on the BBC Third Programme in December 1957. The play was first performed as a curtain raiser to Endgame (from 28 October to 29 November 1958) at the Royal Court Theatre, London, directed by Donald McWhinnie and starring Patrick Magee. It ran for 38 performances. Synopsis The curtain rises on "[a] late evening in the future." It is Krapps 69th birthday and he hauls out his old tape recorder, reviews one of the earlier years the recording he made when he was 39 and makes a new recording commenting on the last 12 months. Krapp is sitting in his den, lit by the white light above his desk. Black-and-white imagery continues throughout. On his desk are a tape-recorder and a number of tins containing reels of recorded tape. He consults a ledger. The tape he is looking to review is the fifth tape in Box 3. He reads aloud from the ledger but it is obvious that words alone are not jogging his memory. He takes childish pleasure in saying the word spool. The tape dates from when he turned 39. His taped voice is strong and rather selfimportant. The voice mentions that hes just celebrated his birthday alone "at the wine house" jotting down notes in preparation for the recording session later. His bowel trouble is still a problem and one obviously exacerbated by eating too many bananas. "The new light above my table is a great improvement," reports the 39-year-old Krapp, before describing how much he enjoys leaving it, wandering off into the darkness, so that he can return to the zone of light which he identifies with his essential self. He notes how quiet the night is. The voice reports that he has just reviewed an old tape from when he was in his late twenties. It amuses him to comment on his impressions of what he was like in his twenties and even the 69-year-old Krapp joins in the derisory laughter. The 11

young man he was back then is described as idealistic, even unrealistic in his expectations. The 39-year-old Krapp looks back on the 20-odd-year-old Krapp with the same level of contempt as the 20-odd-year-old Krapp appears to have displayed for the young man he saw himself for in his late teens. Each can see clearly the fool he was but only time will reveal what kind of fool he has become. The voice reviews his last year, when his mother died. He talks about sitting on a bench outside the nursing home waiting for the news that she had passed away. When the moment comes he is in the process of throwing a rubber ball to a dog. He ends up simply leaving the ball with the creature even though a part of him regrets not hanging onto it as some kind of memento. Krapp at 69 is more interested in his younger selfs use of the rather archaic word "viduity" (Beckett had originally used "widowhood" in early drafts) than in the reaction of the voice on the tape to their mothers passing. He stops listening to look up the word in a large dictionary. He returns to the tape. The voice starts to describe the revelation he experienced at the end of a pier. Krapp grows impatient and gets worked up when his younger self starts enthusing about this. He fast-forwards almost to the end of the tape to escape the onslaught of words. Suddenly the mood has changed and he finds himself in the middle of a description of a romantic liaison between himself and a woman in a punt. Krapp lets it play out and then rewinds the tape to hear the complete episode. Throughout it he remains transfixed and visibly relives the moment while it is retold. Afterwards, Krapp carefully removes this tape, locates a fresh one, loads it, checks the back of an envelope where he has made notes earlier, discards them and starts. He is scathing when it comes to his assessment of his thirty-nine-yearold self and is glad to see the back of him. He finds he has nothing he wants to record for posterity, save the fact he "Revelled in the word spool." But he does mention a trip to the park and attending Vespers, where he dozed off and fell off the pew. He also mentions his recent literary disappointments: "seventeen copies sold", presumably of his last book, eleven of which have gone not to interested readers but to foreign libraries; "Getting known," he sarcastically summarizes. His sex life has been reduced to periodic visits by an old prostitute recalling the jibes made in Eh Joe: "That slut that comes on Saturday, you pay her, don't you? ... Penny a hoist tuppence as long as you like." Unlike his younger selves, Krapp has nothing good to say about the man he has become and even the idea of making one "last effort when it comes to his writing upsets him. He retreats into memories from his dim and distant past, gathering holly and walking the dog of a Sunday morning. He then remembers the girl on the punt, wrenches off the tape he has been recording, throws it away and replays the entire section again from the previous tape. It is a scene of masochism reminiscent of Croak in Words and Music, tormenting himself with an image of a womans face. This time he allows the tape to play out. It ends with the thirty-nine-year-old Krapp determinately not regretting the choices he has made, certain that what he would produce in the years to come would more than compensate him for any potential loss of happiness. Krapp makes no response to this but allows the tape to play on until the final curtain. "Krapps spool of life is almost wound, and the silent tape is both the time it has left to run and the silence into which he must pass." Whereas the younger Krapp talks about the "fire in me" the tired old man who sits listening is simply "burning to be gone." The title of the play seems obvious, that what we have witnessed is the recording of Krapps final tape, "yet there is an ambiguity: 'last' can mean 'most recent' as well as 'ultimate'. The speaker in Brownings My Last Duchess is already planning to marry his next duchess Still, one hopes for Krapps sake that he will be gone before another year is over." 12

Structure In Waiting for Godot, Beckett uses aspects of Judeo-Christianity as the template for his play, in Film the template is the writings of Bishop Berkeley, and in Krapps Last Tape, according to Anthony Cronin, he uses Manichaenism as a structural device: The dichotomy of light and dark is central to Manichaean doctrine Its adherents believed that the world was ruled by evil powers, against which the god of the whole of creation struggled as yet in vain Krapp is in violation of the three seals or prohibitions of Manichaenism for the elect: the seal of the hands, forbidding engagement in a profession, the seal of the breast against sexual desire, and the seal of the mouth, which forbids the drinking of wine Beckett [however] seems to have known no more about Manichaenism than is contained in the eleventh edition of the Encyclopdia Britannica, which he possessed. SUMMARY OF KRAPPS LAST TAPE Krapps last tape is short play written by Samuel Beckett in 1958 about a writer who has recorded his thought and views of his life on audio tape every year since he was twenty four. He has stored and numbered each tape and keeps them locked in a desk at home. From the play as Krapp listens to past recordings we can learn about different events that have happened in Krapps past which might give us an understanding about how he was. Also Krapp himself can see how he has changed through the ages and what kind of a man he has become. We are given a description of Krapp at sixty-nine as a wearish old man, wearing rusty black narrow trousers too short for him. Rust black sleeveless waistcoat, Heavy silver watch and chain. Grimy white collarless shirt and a pair of dirty pointed white boots at least a size ten. His face is white, with a purple nose, tossed grey hair and he is unshaven. He is hard of hearing, which we can see during the play as he leans over the tape recorder to listen to himself on the tapes. He is shorted sighted (but does not wear spectacles) which we see at the beginning of the play as he takes a bunch of keys out of his pocket and holds them close to his eyes to find the right one to open the drawers in his desk where he keeps his recordings. Krapps Last Tape begins with Krapp a man who has a weakness for bananas, is about to make a recording of the events in his life that have happened over the past year. Before he does this he decides to listen to a recording that he made when he was thirty-nine. This was an eventful year in Krapps life. The year when he rejected the love of a girl called Bianca and the year in which his mother died in the late autumn. Most of Krapp's last Tape consists of him sitting listening to this tape with only a few pause where he would stop to try and make sense of what the almost stranger like voice meant when he recorded the tape at thirty nine years of age. For Example as Krapp of thirty-nine mentions his mother dying in the late autumn "after her long viduity", the present Krapp does not understand what was meant by this and had to refer to the dictionary to find the meaning of the word viduity. Again this could have been just old age catching up on him. But it was as if someone one else was talking, that he did not recognise as he has changed so much over the years, that maybe only for these recordings he would never have believed he was ever that man. The only other reason that the tape would stop during the play was for him to mumble a few words or go and have a drink. He would walk out of the light and into the darkness of the stage. 13

Krapp feels that the young Krapp in the tapes is a more foolish and nave man, than the man he has become today (which is relevant to most people), but admires the voice of a more hopeful younger Krapp of thirty-nine. Krapp highlights his belief of his differences to the young man in the tape with the phrase "perhaps my best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness. But I wouldnt want them back. Not with the fire in me. No I wouldnt want them back". Maybe this comment is Krapp regretting the love he separated himself from with Bianca "a girl in a shabby green coat on a railway station platform " and the boat trip he spent with a woman (maybe Bianca or another women from his past), "I lay down across her with my face in her breasts and my hand on her. We lay there without moving. But under us all moved, and moved us, gently up an down, and from side to side ". Maybe Krapp regrets not keeping to his resolutions of when he was thirty-nine to drink less, which did not seem to be the case as he has several drinks during the play. Krapp over the years has distances himself from relationships with other and has chose a life of loneliness. His only companionship now is the tapes he has recorded over the years to remind him of the life he could have had and the man he once was.

5. Action and performance: identitiy and alterity

Harold Pinter's plays reflect most common themes of the 20th century drama such as the loss of meaning and identity. In Pinter's plays, the characters are depicted as they are in constant struggle for asserting their identity and meaning to their existence. Since they feel insecure about both their existence and identity, they feel the need to dominate others for the sake of asserting sovereignty over what they possess. In that way, they think they can define their existence and identity. Overpowering others is a way of feeling confident about themselves and their surroundings. Thus, Pinter's plays represent themselves as battlefields in which every character is on guard to fight against the other for feeling secure in an insecure world, as Cahn points out that : "This battle is, at its core, a struggle for power, power that in and of itself provides some verification". All Pinter's plays are models of power structures in which characters dominate others. The weapons that they use for dominating are the recollection of the past and the language. Pinter's Old Times is a good example for reflecting the characters' struggle for power with the help of their recollections and use of language. Harold Pinter: The Caretaker Summary: Act I 14

[Scene 1] Aston has invited Davies, a homeless man, into his apartment after rescuing him from a bar fight. Davies comments on the apartment and criticizes the fact that it is cluttered and badly kept. Aston attempts to find a pair of shoes for Davies but Davies rejects all the offers. Once he turns down a pair that doesnt fit well enough and another that has the wrong colour laces. Early on, Davies reveals to Aston that his real name is not "Bernard Jenkins", his "assumed name", but really "Mac Davies". He claims that his papers validating this fact are in Sidcup and that he must and will return there to retrieve them just as soon as he has a good pair of shoes. Aston and Davies discuss where he will sleep and the problem of the "bucket" attached to the ceiling to catch dripping rain water from the leaky roof and Davies "gets into bed" while "ASTON sits, poking his [electrical] plug . [Scene 2] As Aston dresses for the day, Davies awakes with a start, and Aston informs Davies that he was kept up all night by Davies muttering in his sleep. Davies denies that he made any noise. Aston informs Davies that he is going out but invites him to stay if he likes, indicating that he trusts him, something unexpected by Davies; for, as soon as Aston does leave the room, Davies begins rummaging through Aston's "stuff" but he is interrupted when Mick, Astons brother, unexpectedly arrives. Act II [Scene 1] Mick demands to know Davies' name, which the latter gives as "Jenkins", interrogates him about how well he slept the night before, wonders whether or not Davies is actually "a foreigner. Aston enters with a "bag" ostensibly for Davies, and the brothers debate how to fix the leaking roof and Davies interrupts to inject the more practical question: "What do you do . . . when that bucket's full?" and Aston simply says, "Empty it". After Mick leaves, and Davies recognizes him to be "a real joker, that lad", they discuss Mick's work in "the building trade" and Davies ultimately discloses that the bag they have fought over and that he was so determined to hold on to "ain't my bag" at all. Aston offers Davies the job of Caretaker, leading to Davies' various assorted animadversions about the dangers that he faces for "going under an assumed name" and possibly being found out by anyone who might "ring the bell called Caretaker". [Scene 2] Davies enters, closes the door, and tries the light switch, on, off, on, off. It appears to Davies that "the damn light's gone now," but, it becomes clear that Mick has sneaked back into the room in the dark and removed the bulb; he starts up "the electrolux" and scares Davies almost witless before claiming "I was just doing some spring cleaning" and returning the bulb to its socket. After a discussion with Davies about the place being his "responsibility" and his ambitions to fix it up, Mick also offers Davies the job of "caretaker", but pushes his luck with Mick when he observes negative things about Aston, like the idea that he "doesn't like work" or is "a bit of a funny bloke" for "Not liking work", 15

leading Mick to observe that Davies is "getting hypocritical" and "too glib", and they turn to the absurd details of "a small financial agreement" relating to Davies' possibly doing "a bit of caretaking" or "looking after the place" for Mick, and then back to the inevitable call for "references" and the perpetuallynecessary trip to Sidcup to get Davies' identity "papers". [Scene 3] Davies wakes up and complains to Aston about how badly he slept. He blames various aspects of the apartment's set up. Aston suggests adjustments but Davies proves to be callous and inflexible. Aston tells the story of how he was checked into a mental hospital and given electric shock therapy, but when he tried to escape from the hospital he was shocked while standing, leaving him with permanent brain damage; he ends by saying, "I've often thought of going back and trying to find the man who did that to me. But I want to do something first. I want to build that shed out in the garden". Act III [Scene 1] Two weeks later Davies and Mick discuss the apartment. Mick relates in great detail what he would do to redecorate it. When asked who "would live there," Mick's response "My brother and me" leads Davies to complain about Aston's inability to be social and just about every other aspect of Aston's behaviour. Though initially invited to be a "caretaker," first by Aston and then by Mick, he begins to ingratiate himself with Mick, who acts as if he were an unwitting accomplice in Davies' eventual conspiracy to take over and fix up the apartment without Aston's involvement an outright betrayal of the brother who actually took him in and attempted to find his "belongings"; but just then Aston enters and gives Davies yet another pair of shoes which he grudgingly accepts, speaking of "going down to Sidcup" in order "to get" his "papers" again. [Scene 2] Davies brings up his plan when talking to Aston, whom he insults by throwing back in his face the details of his treatment in the mental institution, leading Aston, in a vast understatement, to respond: "I . . . I think it's about time you found somewhere else. I don't think we're hitting it off". When finally threatened by Davies pointing a knife at him, Aston tells Davies to leave. Davies, outraged, claims that Mick will take his side and kick Aston out instead and leaves in a fury, concluding (mistakenly): "Now I know who I can trust". [Scene 3] Davies reenters with Mick explaining the fight that occurred earlier and complaining still more bitterly about Mick's brother, Aston. Eventually, Mick takes Aston's side, beginning with the observation "You get a bit out of your depth sometimes, don't you? Mick forces Davies to disclose that his "real name" is Davies and his "assumed name" is "Jenkins" and, after Davies calls Aston "nutty", Mick appears to take offense at what he terms Davies' "impertinent thing to say," concludes, "I'm compelled to pay you off for your caretaking work. Here's half a 16

dollar," and stresses his need to turn back to his own "business" affairs. When Aston comes back into the apartment, the brothers face each other. Using the excuse of having returned for his "pipe", Davies turns to beg Aston to let him stay. But Aston rebuffs each of Davies' rationalisations of his past complaints. The play ends with a "Long silence" as Aston, who "remains still, his back to him [Davies], at the window, apparently unrelenting as he gazes at his garden and makes no response at all to Davies' futile plea, which is sprinkled with many dots (". . .") of elliptical hesitations .

6. Postmodernist drama and metatheatre Definition: Postmodern theatre, like other postmodern art forms, discards many of the ideas of modernism. Theories of modern theatre propose that access to universal truths can be achieved through artistic representation of life. Postmodern theatre, however, rejects the notion of make-believe and instead sees theatrical performance as a real life event or happening in which the audience participates. Devices like standard plots and character development are minimized. Postmodern theatre embraces human experience in various forms and takes its inspiration from history, culture, and social issues. David Hares Stuff Happens is a good example of these ideas.

To some degree, modern theatre is based on concepts developed by Aristotle, who proposed that drama could reveal universal truths. Theories about modern theatre suggest that access to universal truths can be achieved through formal devices like plot, cause and effect, and character development. In postmodern theatre, however, there are many possible truths, depending on the point of view. Playwrights, actors and audience members all lend their perspectives to the creative process. Postmodern theatre forces the audience to reevaluate the boundaries between art and reality, and it discards the idea of theatre as a representation of life. Plays are intended to be events, as much a part of life, as any other event. The outcome of a play might change from performance to performance. For those who are accustomed to the neat development of plots and characters in drama, this can be an unsettling experience. Metatheatre Definition : The term meta-theatre refers to a level of communication in which theatre talks about itself as theatrical, and draws attention to its own theatrical pretence, for example when actors on the stage become the audience of their own play, thereby reflecting the audience-function back to the actual audience. The prefix "meta" comes from the Greek and means "above", "after", "beside" and "about". Direct addresses to the audience, epilogues and prologues are meta-dramatic in that they refer to the play itself. In a broader sense of the term meta-theatre refers to "play-within-the-play" (as, for example, in "Hamlet", or the dog-song in "Waiting for Godot"). This can be taken further still in plays about plays. 17

"Metatheatre" is a convenient name for the quality or force in a play which challenges theatre's claim to be simply realistic -- to be nothing but a mirror in which we view the actions and sufferings of characters like ourselves, suspending our disbelief in their reality. Metatheatre begins by sharpening our awareness of the unlikeness of life to dramatic art; it may end by making us aware of life's uncanny likeness to art or illusion. By calling attention to the strangeness, artificiality, illusoriness, or arbitrariness -- in short, the theatricality -- of the life we live, it marks those frames and boundaries that conventional dramatic realism would hide. It may present action so alien, improbable, stylized, or absurd that we are forced to acknowledge the estranging frame that encloses a whole play. It may, on the other hand, break the frame of the "fourth wall" of conventional theatre, reaching out to assault the audience or to draw it into the realm of the play. It may -- by devices like plays within plays, self-consciously "theatrical" characters, and commentary on the theatre itself -- dwell on the boundaries between "illusion" or artifice and "reality" within a play, making us speculate on the complex mixture of illusion and reality in our ordinary experience. Any theatrical device can work metatheatrically if we sense in it a certain deliberate reflexiveness, a tendency to refer to itself or to its context in a more general mode: to theatre itself; to art, artifice, and illusion; and perhaps above all to language as such. Author Sir Tom Stoppard, (born Tom Straussler; 3 July 1937) is a Czech-born British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Bo Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead . He co-wrote the screenplays for Brazil and Shakespeare in Love, and has received one Academy Award and four Tony Awards. Themes of human rights, censorship and political freedom pervade his work along with exploration of linguistics and philosophy. Stoppard has been a key playwright of the National Theatre and is one of the most internationally performed dramatists of his generation. Act One The play opens with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern betting on coin flips. Rosencrantz, who bets heads each time, wins ninety-two flips in a row. The extreme unlikeliness of this event according to the laws of probability leads Guildenstern to suggest that they may be "within un-, sub- or supernatural forces". The reader learns why they are where they are: the King has sent for them. Guildenstern theorizes on the nature of reality, focusing on how an event becomes increasingly real as more people witness it. A troupe of Tragedians arrives and offers the two men a show. They seem capable only of performances involving bloodbaths. The next two scenes are from the plot of Hamlet. The first, involving Hamlet and Ophelia, takes place offstage in the Shakespeare. The second is taken directly from Hamlet, and is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's first appearance in that play. Here the Danish king and queen, Claudius and Gertrude, ask the two to discover the nature of Hamlet's recent madness. The royal couple demonstrate an inability to distinguish the two courtiers from one another, as indeed do the characters themselves to their irritation.

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Rosencrantz and Guildenstern attempt to practice for their meeting with the Prince by one pretending to be Hamlet and the other asking him questions, but they glean no new information from it. The act closes with another scene from Hamlet in which they finally meet the Prince face to face. Act Two The act opens with the end of the conversation between Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Hamlet. Guildenstern tries to look on the bright side, while Rosencrantz makes it clear that the pair had made no progress, that Hamlet had entirely outwitted them. The Player returns to the stage. He is angry that the pair had not earlier stayed to watch their play because, without an audience, his Tragedians are nothing. He tells them to stop questioning their existence because, upon examination, life appears too chaotic to comprehend. The Player, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern lose themselves in yet another illogical conversation that demonstrates the limits of language. The Player leaves in order to prepare for his production of the "Murder of Gonzago", set to be put on in front of Hamlet and the King and Queen. The royal couple enters and begins another short scene taken directly from Hamlet: they ask about the duo's encounter with the Prince, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern inform them about his interest in the Tragedians' production. After the king and queen leave, the partners contemplate their job. They see Hamlet walk by but fail to seize the opportunity to interrogate him. The Tragedians return and perform their dress rehearsal of The Murder of Gonzago. The play moves beyond the scope of what the reader sees in Hamlet; characters resembling Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are seen taking a sea voyage and meeting their deaths at the hands of English courtiers, foreshadowing their true fate. Rosencrantz does not quite make the connection, but Guildenstern is frightened into a verbal attack on the Tragedians' inability to capture the real essence of death. The stage becomes dark. When the stage is once again visible, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern lie in the same position as had the actors portraying their deaths. The partners are upset that they have become the pawns of the royal couple. Claudius enters again and tells them to find where Hamlet has hidden Polonius' corpse. After many false starts they eventually find Hamlet, who leaves with the King. Rosencrantz is delighted to find that his mission is complete, but Guildenstern knows it is not over. Hamlet enters, speaking with a Norwegian soldier. Rosencrantz decides that he is happy to accompany Hamlet to England because it means freedom from the orders of the Danish court. Guildenstern understands that wherever they go, they are still trapped in this world. Act Three Rosencrantz and Guildenstern find themselves on a ship that has already set sail. The audience is led to believe that the pair has no knowledge of how they got there. At first, they try to determine whether they are still alive. Eventually, they recognize that they are not dead and are on board a boat. They remember that Claudius had given them a letter to deliver to England. After some brief confusion 19

over who actually has the letter, they find it and end up opening it. They realize that Claudius has asked for Hamlet to be killed. While Rosencrantz seems hesitant to follow their orders now, Guildenstern convinces him that they are not worthy of interfering with fate and with the plans of kings. The stage becomes black and, presumably, the characters go to sleep. Hamlet switches the letter with one he has written himself, an act which takes place off stage in Hamlet. The pair discovers that the Tragedians are hidden ('impossibly', according to the stage directions) in several barrels on deck. They are fleeing Denmark, because their play has offended Claudius. When Rosencrantz complains that there is not enough action, pirates attack. Hamlet, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern and the Player all hide in separate barrels. The lights dim. When the lights come on again, Hamlet has vanished (in Hamlet it's reported that he was kidnapped by pirates from the ship). Rosencrantz and Guildenstern panic, and re-read the letter to find that it now calls for them to be put to death instead of the prince. Guildenstern cannot understand why he and Rosencrantz are so important as to necessitate their executions. The Player tells Guildenstern that all paths end in death. Guildenstern snaps and draws the Player's dagger from his belt, shouting at him that his portrayals of death do not do justice to the real thing. He stabs the Player and the Player appears to die. Guildenstern honestly believes he has killed the Player. Seconds later, the Tragedians begin to clap and the Player stands up and brushes himself off, revealing the knife to be a theatrical one with a retractable blade. The Tragedians then act out the deaths from the final scene of Hamlet. The lighting shifts so that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are the only ones visible. Rosencrantz still does not understand why they must die. Still, he resigns himself to his fate and his character disappears. Guildenstern wonders when he passed the point where he could have stopped the series of events that has brought him to this point. He disappears as well. The final scene features the last few lines from Shakespeare's Hamlet, as the Ambassador from England announces that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.

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