Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

From the uncomparable genius of Tom Stoppard comes a quotable masterpiece about two friends lost in someone else's story. While the rest of Shakespeare's characters remain true to their original script, Ros and Guil step out of the box to explore a variety of topics ranging from the metaphysical to the downright comical. As the title suggests, the story is, ultimately, a tradegy -- but as the reader gets to know the two stars, it becomes a tragedy on multiple levels. One feels that their deaths are preordained, and even the moments of sidesplitting hilarity are laced with the bittersweet knowledge that it WILL end. The story is made still more touching as the characters' early realization of their fate battles with their unquenchable hope. Stoppard has captured in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern a sense of innocence that endures despite the chaos around them in a world where it seems even the laws of physics have suddenly ceased to apply. A perfect mixture of comedy and tragedy with a philosophical overtone attainable only by Stoppard, this is a play you will want to read, re-read, and act out with your friends in daily conversations.

This play never gets old. Does any play? They're like flies encased in amber, filled with the blood of dinosaurs. Every performance stirs ancient powers. You never know what they'll bring back to life, or back to death. Here the extras are the heroes, just for one day. Hamlet gets a few walk-ons, but to be or not to be is never a question. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are the perhaps unwilling, perhaps complicit participants in their inevitable, inexplicable existence, and they take center stage in this very meta play about plays about life, death, you, me, choice, chance, and fate. Do they seize their chance or waste it? Could it have been any different? Are they, in the end, extra mortal or alive forever? Is the title, in the end, the first and last joke? I can't give enough praise to the hilarity, the profundity, the stupidity, the cupidity, the reality of this marvelous play-thing. I don't think you really need to have Hamlet before it. And you won't have quite the same Hamlet after it.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern show us the problem with free will is that humans are potentially completely reactionary, despite our attempts not to be. The theater of the absurd dramatizes the problem of free-will as a ridiculous concept. In Stoppard’s play the best parts were the futility of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern on the boat wondering what happens once they get to England. In our everyday lives we act the same way toward upcoming events, and while many of us just reassure ourselves with assumptions on what we will do, in reality we have no idea. That is because in a given situation we are forced to interact with what is thrown at us. Even the ultimate sign of free-will, reading self-help books, is spurred by personal failures caused by the situations thrown at us. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern get “self-help” from the player, but as Stoppard points out, all of us are on the same boat. The difference is that some of us are willing to make more assumptions and cling to values than others. Meanwhile, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern refuse to do such a thing.

I love this the first time I read it in high school. I've loved it every reading since. Even after directing this show in college through an extremely grueling rehearsal and production period, I still love this show. Waiting for Godot meets Hamlet. If you like either of those two classics, you owe yourself to check this out. Thought provoking and hilarious, many times almost simultaneously. Slight warning: The play is a masterpiece in my eyes, but mileage may vary for the movie. I personally don't like the decisions made in the movie, but I do love the performances by the main three actors.

Yes, this is a play and many people read them in school because they HAD to. I enjoyed this read because it brought back to mind the play I saw at the Black Friars theater in Staunton, VA about 8-10 years ago. It is great story line and was fun to reread it.

A remarkable film that will captivate you with its memorable humor and subtle depth. The characters & scenes will stick with you.

Such an amazingly written play! I was impressed and enjoyed reading it immensely. Although it had a reminded me much of Waiting for Godot, however it was more entertaining and added a new element to Shakespeare that I had never really emerged myself in before.

Tom Stoppard argues quite persuasively in this play against notions of meaning, truth, and reality. In the form of a narrative, Stoppard seeks to destroy the idea of a narrative. The play is the perspective of two minor characters in Hamlet, tossed about by the whims of monarchs, princes, and an unfolding Shakespearean tragedy that they cannot perceive. While the word play is impressive and the characters complex, the message of the play is such that one must state, at the conclusion, if any of this is true, then both the writing and reading of this play are pointless. While a good example of a fatalistic worldview and a well crafted play, readers may wish to find works less bent on their own destruction and with less obvious self-contradiction than a work constructed to show that constructions are ultimately meaningless. While from any other perspective the work is well-crafted, the reader or viewer must not believe in the intended meaning in "Rosencranz & Guildenstern Are Dead" if any meaning is to be found.

We were very fortunate to have caught a performance of Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead at the Soulpepper Theatre in Toronto. It was brilliantly staged, with superb acting. As a rule, I like to read a play before seeing it on the stage. Alas, we didn’t have time to find a hardcopy and so Amazon’s e-book version came to the rescue. I had Rosencrantz & Guildenstern on my Kindle in seconds and could lose myself in the play. I was pleasantly surprised how well suited a play is for the e-book format. After we saw the play, I went back to re-read parts on the Kindle and enjoy the inimitable wit and absurd dialogue so reminiscent of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. It helps, of course, to be somewhat familiar with Hamlet and see the unfolding tragedy through the eyes of Shakespeare’s innocent marginal characters, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Picture the stage: almost everyone is dead when the English Ambassador announces The sight is dismal; and our affairs from England come too late. The ears are senseless that should give us hearing to tell him his commandment is fulfilled, that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. Where should we have our thanks? The dialogue in this play is witty and can be read on several levels. The Kindle is perfect for re-reading and sharing Stoppard’s play over-‘n-over again in coffee shops, airplanes, or wherever. Paul P. K. Winter

La professoressa ha chiesto alla classe di leggere questo testo durante l'estate ed essendo impossibile trovare una versione specifica madrelingua per studenti, ho optato per questo ma mio figlio e' riuscito ad arrivare, con difficolta', solo circa a meta' poiche' il testo, in inglese antico e versione teatrale, gli risultava di difficile comprensione nonostante lui sappia l'inglese molto bene per la sua eta'! Sconsigliato quindi per studenti del liceo....forse per universitari o per addetti ai lavori....! Speriamo la prof sia comprensiva.....

I saw the original play when it first came out in 1968, and I can say that it is still as fresh and original today as it was then. The screenplay differs somewhat from the theatrical version, and I got it because I am using the film in an EFL course I teach and need the text as backup. The film itself is well worth it, especially if you haven't seen it on stage.