Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Guildenstern (Adam Wesley Brown, left) and Rosencrantz (Romell Witherspoon) contemplate their fates in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Teresa Wood
Performance Dates
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In a world where pirates can happen to anyone, this fabulously inventive existentialist tragicomedy is a veritable feast of wordplay and wit.

Winner of four Tony Awards, including “Best Play,” ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD thrusts two of Shakespeare’s most incidental characters into the limelight. Courtiers and close compatriots Rosencrantz and Guildenstern find themselves in Elsinore with the dubious task of identifying what afflicts their childhood friend Hamlet. Can this bewildered duo manage to keep their heads as they engage with a ragtag group of bedraggled players, find themselves on the high seas, and are attacked by a band of pirates? 

The New York Times hailed Stoppard's early play as "Very funny, very brilliant, very chilling."

Production Information

Approximate Running Time
140 minutes

Cast

Performer
Role
Soldier, Tragedian, Player Poisoner
Fortinbras, Tragedian, Cloaked Figure 1
Horatio, Tragedian, Cloaked Figure 2
Ambassador, Tragedian, Player King
Soldier, Alfred, Player Queen
Guildenstern
Polonius

Creative Team

Playwright
Set Designer
Costume Designer
Sound Designer
Lighting Designer
Other
Michele Osherow, Resident Dramaturg
Marne Anderson, Production Stage Manager