GUIL (retiring): I'm relieved. At least we can still count on
self-interest as a predictable factor... I suppose it's the last to go. Your
capacity for trust made me wonder if perhaps... you, alone...
(He turns on him suddenly, reaches out a hand.) Touch.
(ROS claps his hand. GUIL pulls him up to him.)
(All four reach the top, see something they don't like, waver, run for
their lives downstage:)
(HAMLET, in the lead, leaps into the left barrel. PLAYER leaps into the
right barrel. ROS and GUIL leap into the middle barrel. All closing the lids
after them.)
(The lights dim to nothing while the sound of fighting continues. The
sound fades to nothing. The lights come up.)
(The middle barrel (ROS's and GUIL's) is missing.)
(The lid of the right-hand barrel is raised cautiously, the heads of
ROS and GUIL appear.)
(The lid of the other barrel (HAMLET's) is raised. The head of the
PLAYER appears.)
(All catch sight of each other and slam down lids.)
GUIL: Where are you going?
PLAYER: I can come and go as I please.
GUIL: You're evidently a man who knows his way around.
PLAYER: I've been here before.
GUIL: We're still finding our feet.
PLAYER: I should concentrate on not losing your heads.
GUIL: Do you speak from knowledge?
PLAYER: Precedent.
GUIL: You've been here before.
PLAYER: And I know which way the wind is blowing.
ROSENCRANTZ: Well, there are only two of us. Is that enough?
PLAYER: For an audience, disappointing. For voyeurs, about average.
-Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard
GUIL (leaping up): What a shambles! We're just not getting anywhere.
ROS (mournfully): Not even England. I don't believe in it anyway.
GUIL: What?
ROS: England.
GUIL: Just a conspiracy of cartographers, you mean?
-Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Tom Stoppard
PLAYER: We transport you into the world of intrigue and illusion... clowns, if you like, murderers - we can do you ghosts and battles, on the skirmish levels, heroes, villains, tormented lovers - set pieces in the poetic vein; we can do you rapiers or rape or both, by all means, faithless wives and ravished virgins - flagrante delicto at a price, but that comes under realism for which there are special terms. Getting warm, am I?
We do on stage things that are supposed to happen off. Which is a kind of integrity, if you look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else. -Player, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
GUILDENSTERN: Well... aren't you going to change into costume?
PLAYER: I never change out, sir.
GUILDENSTERN: Always in character.
PLAYER: That's it.
-Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Tom Stoppard
