Perhaps Tom Stoppard's most famous play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead retells Hamlet from the perspectives of two minor characters from Shakespeare's play. Students will better understand and appreciate this re-interpretation if they read Hamlet first. They can then discuss the relationship between Stoppard's play and Hamlet. The title Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is a line from Shakespeare's play. Your class can discuss the meaning of the title and how Stoppard intends for the audience to interpret it.
Stoppard's play is an Absurdist drama, and an introductory lesson about the conventions of Theatre of the Absurd and how it relates to the tragicomedy genre and existential philosophy will help students better understand the work. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is an example of metatheatre, so students should learn what that term means. They can evaluate how the play within a play setting and the characters, particularly the Player, draw attention to the drama's unreality. The class can then discuss how metatheatre relates to the play's existential themes.
Summary
The play opens with the titular characters tossing a coin that lands on heads each time, an improbability that baffles Guildenstern. The two then realize they cannot remember a past before coin tossing and only vaguely recall being summoned to the king. They meet a group of actors, called the Tragedians, led by the Player. As the actors put on a play, the scene shifts to the royal castle of Denmark.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern witness the disheveled Hamlet embrace Ophelia. Claudius and Gertrude greet the men, but mix up their names, and explain that since Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Hamlet's childhood friends, the King and Queen want them to uncover the cause of his recent transformation. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern then try to determine Hamlet's sanity. The Tragedians return and put on a show that mirrors the plot of Hamlet. Claudius interrupts rehearsal to announce that Hamlet has murdered Polonius and to charge Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with arresting Hamlet. They eventually find the prince and travel by boat to escort him to England and deliver a letter to the king.
Content Warning
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead contains some sexual references.
Movies
The play has been adapted into a 1990 film Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead that was written and directed by Tom Stoppard. The movie stars Gary Oldman as Rosencrantz, Tim Roth as Guildenstern, and Richard Dreyfuss as the Player. It has received generally positive reviews and won the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival.
Available from Prestwick House:
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
Multiple Critical Perspectives