This makes me wonder whether the Player ever gets to do this for Hamlet. Is there an intermediary rehearsal or meeting between this and the performance?
Then that made me wonder what happens to the Players after the performance is given over. They’re probably some of the few characters who survive this play but when do they leave? Tom Stoppard has them depart with Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, which might well make sense. Clearly the court is in an uproar, Hamlet is being sent to England, the show has not been a success, leaving on the next boat to England is a very logical choice.
They could also have packed up as soon as the play is scuttled and booked it out of there ASAP, like that night, while Hamlet’s busy killing Polonius. Or perhaps they hang around until the end, watching all the developments in the story, perhaps noting them for future performances.
Why would they stay? I don’t know – maybe waiting for Hamlet or someone else to pay them.
The Hamlet Project 