Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Tom Stoppard)
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Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Tom Stoppard) Details
Acclaimed 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.
Reviews
Just one of my favorite lines from this fine play is "What a fine persectution--to be kept intrigued without ever being enlightened." That is the predicament of two bit players in the grand pageant that is Shakespeare's Hamlet. They know little about their childhood friend and less about court intrigues. They are we, and we are they. Like Rosencrantz, we observe closely and infer. Like Guildenstern, we trust that reason and precedent will deliver truth. For these poor fellows, neither experience nor reason enlightens and they end with a whimper, not a bang. The play is--well, playful. Stoppard plays with language, belief, classic characters, life and death. Read it aloud. Read it to yourself. Reread Hamlet, then read Stoppard's play again. Keep a copy near and dip into it in idle moments. It will delight and inform.