Just now:
David Bowie singing over the café noise.
The espresso machine.
The voices of friends and colleagues gently murmuring to each other, the occasional word or phrase popping up to be understood. “Yeah I watched that.” “Facebook.”
Outside the sirens of an ambulance.
Forks touching plates.
Plates or cups being set down on a counter.
Chairs being slid forward, scraping on the floor.
A door opening, then closing.

Who will see the players well bestowed? I know so few who have been taken care of as they ought.

I’ve seen the best minds of my theatrical generation defeated and demoralized, sent forth into corporations or schools, lost, unmoored from the art, just hustling to make a buck, the ones I know who’ve been well bestowed were either bestowed in another country or bestowed in an earlier generation or a particular brand of pretty, with a particular set of connections, who will see us well bestowed?

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.

There’s something about this that makes me feel like the players are looking to Hamlet for their orders. They’ve been interrupted by Polonius and the question may be whether or not Polonius has the authority to tell them what to do.

Hamlet asked them to start, Polonius has asked them to stop. It could just be a simple question of one person interpreting another request or it could be that Hamlet, as the Prince has greater status, or that it’s a Princely duty to liaison with players.

Or perhaps Hamlet was no authority and just takes it by piling on to Polonius’ request for a stop.

What is Hamlet’s objection to ‘The mobled Queen’?
Is it to the word ‘mobled’?
Is he questioning whether the mobled Queen is Hecuba? Or is he investigating his memory of the text?
He has asked the player to come to Hecuba but at no point in this speech is Hecuba actually named.
Is Hamlet, perhaps, not sure this is the part he wanted to hear?

Is Hecuba the next bit of this speech or is Hamlet having the First Player skip to her? There is a remarkable perspective shift from Pyrrhus to Hecuba – from one location to another. It’s an almost filmic transition. Which is why I wonder if there’s a cut in the middle.

Used to be, I couldn’t really hear those compliments. Used to be, I’d brush them off like a fly on pie. I’d blush, I’d look down and wish fervently for the praising to stop.
Now, I eat them up like curly fries.

Is this true? If so, there’s a level of intimacy here in Hamlet’s knowledge of Polonius’ taste. It makes me wonder about all the years previous to the play. How many performances have Hamlet and Polonius watched together? All of them? Did Hamlet the pre-teen laugh at Polonius snoring through Andromache? Did Hamlet the student roll his eyes as Polonius guffawed at a dirty joke or a silly dance? It might be slightly embarrassing watching a bawdy story with your girlfriend’s dad.

Of course, I’m not convinced that this is true of Polonius. He seems quite enamored of his role as Julius Caesar and there’s a level of dignity that he has (or aspires to have, depending on the production) that doesn’t seem to square with jigs or tales of bawdry.

Some people will keep talking until compelled to stop. Others need encouragement to go on. I’m generally one of the latter. You will only catch me rambling in very welcome environments, otherwise, I will do my best to be terse, concise, brief. The friends that are the dearest are the one who encourage me to say more.

From henceforth, I will send things to the barber’s instead of saying they need editing. We still use the word “cutting” when talking about editing text in the theatre. Was there a time when cutting something from a play required scissors? It makes sense, if you’re carrying your paper role, to cut, literally cut, all unnecessary lines like the hairs on your head. Simply crossing them out really might not do. Next time I see a play that has been overwritten, which needs a serious trim, I may call out “To the barber’s with this!”