Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

by Tom Stoppard

October 28 - November 19, 2011

Brilliant Comic Wit. “Life is what you do while you wait for something to happen” would be an apt description of Tom Stoppard’s first full-length play. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, incidental characters in Shakespeare’s great tragedy Hamlet, are thrust into the forefront of this telling of Hamlet to wonderfully absurd comic effect.

Almost as if they are trapped in a bad dream, stuck in the waiting room of life, their fates seem to be handed to them bit by bit as if it were all scripted. They are left to muse and rail at the absurd twists and turns that are handed down to them. In many ways, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is a very funny rendering of the secret lives of “spear-carriers.”

This is a most remarkable and thrilling play. In one bound Mr. Stoppard is asking to be considered as among the finest speaking writers of our stage, for this is a work of fascinating distinction. Clive Barnes, New York Times. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead won the Tony Award for the Best Play in 1968.

Director Chris Ayles, returning to Role Players after directing the critically acclaimed, "The Foreigner" last season, says, "Tom Stoppard's brilliant take on the "Hamlet" tale combines absurdist, existential elements with Shakespeare's original text. Often likened to Beckett's masterpiece, Waiting for Godot, it challenges the audience to use their imagination in ways unlike traditional theatre."

Featured in the play are Damien Seperi as Rosencrantz and Charles Woodson Parker as Guildenstern, with Bill Dietz, Lindsey Murray, Craig Eychner, Charlie Guitron, Megan Miller, Ben Oldham, Carina Lastimosa Salazar and Eli Wirtschafter.

Danville website: Town of Danville and Role Players Ensemble