Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Category: Event Calendar
Dates and Times
- Sunday, Aug 16, 2026 2pm - 4:30pm
- Sunday, Aug 23, 2026 2pm - 4:30pm
- Sunday, Aug 30, 2026 2pm - 4:30pm
Location
Actors' Theatre
1001 Center Street
Details
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is one of Tom Stoppard's earliest plays and probably his best known.
It is based around two minor characters in Hamlet, and imports the relevant scenes directly from Shakespeare's story. However it probably has more in common with Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot than Shakespeare. It certainly shares Beckett's mid-century (Twentieth, that would be) absurdist style, although Stoppard insists it was written as a comedy — which is hard to claim for either Hamlet or any of Beckett's works.
Comedy it may be, with plenty of laugh lines, albeit a black comedy — but the comedy serves a deeper purpose. Like most of Stoppard's work it asks us to reflect on the meaning of life and doesn't give us any easy answers. It has the character of a young man's play — later works have a more nuanced tone, notably Arcadia and his final play Leopoldstadt. But youthful philosophical fireworks are on full display — Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are, after all, university buddies of Hamlet. A lot of words for sure, but with the verbal dexterity in which Shakespeare also delighted. If you enjoy ideas and language, wielded by a master, worthy to stand in the footsteps of Shakespeare, then this is for you.
