Jessica's Review: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard

This is a play based on the lesser characters of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Shakespeare's Hamlet. It is Stoppard's best known work. In Hamlet, the two characters are ill known, summoned by King Claudius to discover what ails Hamlet. Unfortunately Hamlet hardly recognizes them upon their first meeting and immediately knows that they were sent for, not coming of their own free will. In Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead the play is focused entirely on them and shows in a comic way their view on the entire situation, what they think about Hamlet, Claudius, and the well known play of the Murder of Gonzago. Everything throughout this play is based upon probability and chance, from the chance summoning to Elsinore to the chance misunderstanding of death in the end. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are confused, they know not where they are nor what they are looking for. Most importantly they do not know the true meaning behind any of the events in Elsinore including the order for them both to be put to death. I would suggest this play only to those who often read plays or else those who have recently read Hamlet. I would also suggest seeing it performed although I have yet to do so.

Rating: 3.5Q, 2P

**This title and the DVD of the same name are available through InterLibrary Loan**