“THERE IS AN ART TO THE BUILDING UP OF SUSPENSE.” (COMMENT).

“THERE IS AN ART TO THE BUILDING UP OF SUSPENSE.” (COMMENT). Nick commented on my post about coin flips that: “This would probably alter the implications of the opening scene to Tom Stoppard’s play about Hamlet…” It would alter some of the philosophical implications, but, I think, not the theatrical impact. Tom Stoppard’s ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD begins with a series of coin flips, all of which come up heads. The total reaches 76 in the first minutes of the play. Rosencrantz has the first five lines of the play: “Heads. Heads. Heads. Heads. Heads.” They are spoken slowly as five coins are flipped. Then comes Guildenstern’s line: “There is an art to the building up of suspense.” I have seen the play several times. Suspense builds during those lines—with the exception of one performance where the lines were said too quickly (demonstrating, I guess, that building suspense is an art). How do the actors know how to pace those lines? I think that they pick up the rhythm from the audience’s reaction, as part of the interaction of live theater. (In contrast, in a movie there is no interaction with the audience, and the movie of ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD begins with a very large number of coin flips, all heads.)