h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I am not very familiar with "Waiting For Godot", but the entry does remind me of Tom Stoppard's play "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" (R&GAD), one of my favorites. There seem to be some parallels in the two plays, both having a couple of protagonists who don't understand what is going on. In the case of R&GAD, what's going on is Shakespeare's "Hamlet", of course, but only in disconnected fragments. Unlike the movie (which I enjoyed also), the live performances I've seen give the impression that the two are trapped within the boundaries of the stage. Other characters from Hamlet come and go, but our two protagonists can't seem to step off the stage ... until ... well, I don't want to give it away. And there is some great Stoppard word play, I guess similar to Beckett's. At one point, R & G are wandering around silently for a while on the otherwise empty stage, when one (its never clear which is which) says "Shouldn't we be doing something ... productive?" To which the other replies, "What did you have in mind? A short, blunt human pyramid?"

I had the great good fortune to see the movie yesterday and was, as ever, delighted by it.

The "conspiracy of cartographers" line gets me every time.

What did you think to "Shakespeare in Love"?

I enjoyed "Shakespeare in Love" ... I recall reading that Tom Stoppard waws brought in to punch up the script, probably adding the lines I liked best. Like when the cast is sitting around drinking and someone asks the big guy who plays the maid what the play is about. "Well, there's this maid ..."