Acclaimed as a modern dramatic masterpiece, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is the fabulously inventive tale of Hamlet as told from the worm’s-eye 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.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead premiered with the Oxford Theatre Group at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival on 24 August 1966. Shortly thereafter, on 11 April 1967, it opened in the West End at the Old Vic. On 16 October 1967, the play made its Broadway premiered at the Alvin Theatre.