Mimes season opens with existential comedy

AJ Golio and Michael Brown during rehearsal.

By Nicole Duke

The Mimes and Mummers, the oldest club on Rose Hill’s campus, are starting the fall theater season with a production of the existential play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

The play focuses on two side characters from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and how they (amusingly) cope with Hamlet’s growing madness and the drama surrounding them.

The two main characters, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, seem to make up two halves of the same whole in the show, often finishing each other’s sentences. AJ Golio and Michael Brown, who play the title characters, have been working to perfect their banter.

Director Rory Pelsue finds it important that his actors know the background of the classic Shakespearian play they are referencing. The cast has been running through scenes from the original drama in order to get into character for this more comic retelling.

“Using the other person and working as a team-it’s synchronized and actually pretty simple,” Pelsue said. “The more they use each other and the more they work together to figure something out, the more I find the story funny and the more touching it is.”

This is not Pelsue’s first time working on a Fordham play. He previously directed No Exit in 2012. He praised the Mimes and Fordham drama for their collaborative work

“Community is the operative word,” Pelsue said. “I love that there are so many people coming together to put on these shows. I think it’s great they’re having fun and knowing that the fun of theater is also the sweat and work.”

Pelsue said that audiences should be prepared to “laugh and think.”

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead will be performed Oct. 2-4 at 8 PM and Oct. 5 at 2 PM. Tickets are $5 with Fordham ID and $10 without; opening night is free for students.