By Amanda Knox

With just over a week left until opening night, Literature and Drama teacher Andrew Finley and his cast and crew are busy sawing, stacking, and securing old wooden pallets into what looks like a horseshoe formation. Is it a hill? A castle? A balcony? A ship? It will serve as all of the above and be just what it is—none of those things.

Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is notorious for turning Hamlet on its head and questioning everything one takes for granted: time, space, identity, reality, fate, freedom. It’s a major theme that Finley is emphasizing in multiple ways. The set is clearly a construct, begging the audience to exercise their imagination and at the same time recognize the artifice. The characters from Hamlet—the King, Queen, Laertes, Ophelia, the players—will each be played by multiple members of an ensemble cast, so that the audience won’t be able to pin down characters by their most defining human aspect: their faces. As the script suggests, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern will be confused one with the other, but Finley emphasizes that confusion by casting a boy and a girl for these principle roles. “It’s this male character who’s played by a female actor. We never try to make her look like a boy, but we don’t make it obvious that she’s a girl either. There are a couple of moments in the play when the head player of the drama troupe that they encounter makes a couple of references to, ‘Oh, I’m always in costume…SIR,’ as if to say, ‘I can see through your costume. You’re clearly a girl, but we’re going to pretend you’re a guy.’ It’s part of this question of what is your identity and how can you tell? What do you know and what do you not know?”

Usually this kind of questioning seems to be a departure from practical, every-day existence. Any single person has a set name, job, friends and family. But Finley argues that high school is a particularly appropriate setting for exploring the questioning of reality and identity. “The other major theme is hopelessness, and I’d rather not hit that one so hard for the people who will largely populate my audience. I’d rather explore identity and how do you know who you are and how do you build an identity, because my target audience is in the process of doing that.”

There are a few things you should remember before seeing the show. “R&G,” as Finley affectionately calls it, is a re-envisioning of the tragedy Hamlet from the perspective of two minor characters. Finley recommends that you have a general understanding of the story and themes of the Shakespearean tragedy so you can get the most out of the references made to it. He’s even considering holding a viewing of the Mel Gibson film version of Hamlet for those underclassmen who haven’t read the play in school yet.

The other thing Finley wants you to remember is that R&G, unlike Hamlet, is a comedy. “If it’s not funny, you’re doing it wrong. If people walk in thinking this is Hamlet, it’s going to take them much of the first act to realize that, ‘Oh, wait, not only was what they said funny, but it’s appropriate for me to laugh.’”

Finley has high hopes for the production and every confidence in his cast and crew. “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead has always been one of my really favorite plays. I’ve always wanted to do this show and I’ve been waiting for the right group of kids. This year we’ve got it.”

Performances are scheduled for November 6, 7, 8 and 12, 13, 14 at 7:30 p.m. at West Seattle High School’s campus, 3000 California Ave SW. Tickets are $12 at the door, $7 with an online reservation. To reserve tickets, contact tickets@westsidedrama.com.