I discovered Tom Stoppard when I was in junior high. I was involved in a youth theater program and one of my pals showed up with a copy of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.” I was immediately hooked. I was giddy with the word play Mr. Stoppard employs. She and I would spend hours sitting on the steps between rehearsals or during breaks reading that script – she as Guildenstern, me as Rosencrantz. (Decades on, we still address each other with those names and can recite parts of the play from memory.)
The best part of the whole script is the scant few pages that encompass the Questions Game. Rules are simple: keep asking questions. A point is scored if the opponent returns with a statement, repeats a question, hesitates, or uses rhetoric. Check out how Gary Oldman and Tim Roth play the game in the movie version here:
I was reminded of this when my buddy Guildenstern posted a video from the Old Vic with Daniel Radcliffe and Joshua McGuire playing a non-scripted version of the game as a promo for their upcoming production. Check out their version here:
An online game of questions quickly ensued with friends from different parts of my life chiming in. A portion of the exchange:
Was it your intent to score?
Did you start the game?
Ooo, can I play?
Is it good if I am already down one point?
Would you prefer it to be good?
Would I be a fool to prefer it so?
Are fools the only ones who can play?
Are you foolish?
Could any answer truly stop us from playing?
I couldn’t help but think to our conversations here that always start with a question.
A brief recap of the rules: only speak in questions. Statements, pauses, repeats or rhetoric will give a point to…someone. How much of the day can we spend only speaking to each other using only the interrogatory?
Would you like to play at Questions?
Is anybody out there?
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Is anybody at home?
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Will you Rise and Shine Baboons?
Is it possible to score a point online for a pause?
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How would you determine a pause? Is a pause different than a hesitation?
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How would you?
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Don’t you think we can set the rules any way we want to?
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Does it change the game if we change the rules?
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Would the length of said pause be pertinent?
(Would you believe that I’ve never seen Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and must now somehow see it?)
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How did you think of such a clever post?
Should I be evvious?
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Wouldn’t that be “cleaver?”
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Would you like to be envious? Is envy a worthwhile pursuit?
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Is the StarTrib playing, too? Headlines in Opinion?
A tornado in March? In Minnesota? Really?
Could it be they read our blog?
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(“Headlines in Opinion?” Is that a statement masquerading as a question? Should that be a foul? )
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How much do I love Tom Stoppard plays? Two community theater times’ worth. Our little local group did a couple one acts: Inspector Hound and the 13 Minute Hamlet…is that cool or what?
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And aren’t you all sorry you missed me in a college production of Jumpers?
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when was that?
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Wasn’t it back when the dinosaurs ruled the planet?
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don’t they still?
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(Statement. One – love. -Line Judge)
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is this the best premise ever?
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if you happen to log on while some else is on here could you do volly watching the clock?
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can you discover if you are answered within the minute?
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Would the world be a better place if everyone played this game?
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how do we know unless we try?
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How fun is this? Do you realize how much I love “Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead?” Is that play hilarious or what? Isn’t it amazing how Stoppard wrote an entire play about two minor characters from Hamlet? How cool is that?
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isn’t it grand when you find a match with your soul?
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Have you discovered Mr. Stoppard’s other plays based on minor characters such as “On the Razzle?”
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Is this 45 mph wind ever going to stop blowing?
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And where does the wind blow?
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Shouldn’t that be “where doth”…?
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Did the dead limb that has been dangling from a larger live branch finally plummet to the ground in this wind? Is the answer blowing in the wind?
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Isn’t that the play my son fell in love with 29 years ago? Can you imagine my son graduated 29 years ago?
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Can he?
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Does one ever stop questioning life and ones purpose…if any?
How does one make decisions in life such as where to live?…and when?…and what to do to make a living?…what is a ‘living’?….and how does one just happen to met and or make friends? Is it fate? Carma? Act of God? Just accidental? Are accidents really accidental?
I have too many questions to not keep going ‘tho I must…?…but I shall continue perhaps not on this blog…or shall I?
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To Be or Not To Be? Is that the question?
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Why was I waiting for that one?
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If “to question is to answer,” then are not all the questions really answers?
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Do I love this as I love most games?
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How can I get off the computer/FB/blog/emails to get some darned tasks done?
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Excellent?
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Is that cheating (just slapping on a question mark)?
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How not?
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Do great minds think alike, Lisa?
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Is this one of life’s persistent questions?
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Shouldn’t that be “Its”?
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Shouldn’t what be “Its”?
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Didn’t you see the thumbnail for “Does your chewing gum lose IT’S flavor”?
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Am i really leaving on Saturday to see the D.C. cherry blossoms peak on a near record date? Will the weather there warm up in time for the predicted peak to hit as predicted next week; or will the best laid plans of me and mine, go awry?
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When you see the word “awry”, do you silently pronounce it awe-ree?
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Seriously? Did the mucky mucks at the cherry blossom watch site just push the predicted peak to March 19-23 instead of 14-17 ? How much will it matter if we hit pre-peak? Should this go back to the bottom of the bucket list or are other items more worthy? Is there hope for someone with such a demented first world problem? Is the same woman who just sobbed over The Nightingale really suffering angst over cherry blossom timing?
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Do I want to read The Nightingale if it will make me cry? Don’t I already have enough angst in my life?
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Would an excellent book with tear-jerking parts enrich you? Did I regret reading it? Is angst all bad?
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Is this a fun day or what?
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Is the Pope Catholic?
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Does a bear…(never mind) ? Is this a slippery slope we’re on?
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If a bear can never mind, does that mean he can mind?
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Or she?
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Do you miss Bart the Bear?
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How could you all possibly be more delightful? And how can I thank you for indulging my need for a bit of silliness?
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Could it be that you asked the right group of baboons?
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Is there a wrong group of baboons?
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Think you there is a more diverting post than that we have savoured today? Will my life and my energy coalesce so that I can liberate the posts in my head on to the computer screen?
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So, what’s the score? Was anyone keeping track?
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(We managed no repetitions, one called foul, one possible foul with the “excellent” – arguments could be made for some rhetoric…so. I don’t think either side made it to “game.” Call it two-love? – Line Judge)
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Who know where the time goes?
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*knows
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Damn! Knowing that this may well be used against me as a repeat, I can’t resist. Can this be asked more eloquently than by Sandy Denny?
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(I won’t count the repeat, because, well, music…but I will count the statement – three-love! – Line Judge)
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Thinkest thou there might be some late-commenting baboons?
(Now there’s a sentence you don’t see every day.)
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(Statement – 4-love, which puts us at game. 😉 Line Judge)
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Is that a penguin on the telly?
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