Tom Stoppard

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (Favorite Broadway Dramas) Tom Stoppard

Comedy / 14m, 2f, 12 extras, 6 musicians / Unit set w. platforms, cyc, drops. Winner of both the Tony and NY Drama Critics Circle awards. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are the college chums of Hamlet and their story is what happened behind the scenes in Shakespeare's play. What were they doing there in Elsinore anyway? "I don't know; we were sent for." They are not only anti agents, but also anti sympathy, anti identification, and in fact anti persons, which is uniquely demonstrated by their having such a hard time recollecting which of them goes by what name. The Players come and go; Prince Hamlet comes through reading words, words, words; foul deeds are done; Hamlet is sent abroad, escapes death; and in turn Rosencrantz and Guildenstern find their "only exit is death." "Very funny, very brilliant, very chilling; it has the dust of thought about it and the particles glitter excitingly in the theatrical air." - The New York Times "A stimulating, funny, imaginative comedy." - The New York Daily News