Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are DeadAcclaimed as a modern dramatic masterpiece, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead is the fabulously inventive tale of Hamlet as told from the worm’s-eve view of the bewildered Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two minor characters in Shakespeare’s play. In Tom Stoppard’s best-known work, this Shakespearean Laurel and Hardy finally get a chance to take the lead role, but do so in a world where echoes of Waiting for Godot resound, where reality and illusion intermix, and where fate leads our two heroes to a tragic but inevitable end. Tom Stoppard was catapulted into the front ranks of modem playwrights overnight when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead opened in London in 1967. Its subsequent run in New York brought it the same enthusiastic acclaim, and the play has since been performed numerous times in the major theatrical centers of the world. It has won top honors for play and playwright in a poll of London Theater critics, and in its printed form it was chosen one of the “Notable Books of 1967” by the American Library Association. |
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841 Broadway actors ALFRED audience boat catches caught claps cloaks day our daily death Derek Goldby Desmond Heeley downstage Dumbshow England English king exit eyes feet Flips a coin footlights FORTINBRAS give Glean what afflicts GROVE PRESS GUIL halts GUIL looks GUIL move GUIL snatches GUIL turns Guildenstern Are Dead guilders HAMLET enters hand happen hath Heads holds king of Denmark leave letter light lord matter mean middle barrel mime never odd number Peters Fraser picks Pirates play QUEEN question Real Inspector Hound remember rhetoric Roger Kemp ROS and GUIL ROS comes ROS halts ROS looks ROS stands ROS starts ROS's Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Rosencrantz and Guildenstern silence Small pause speak SPIES spinning coins Stoppard suppose taking Hamlet talking There's thing thought Tom Stoppard tosses turns to GUIL upstage walks What's wheels wing