Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

This play, which made Tom Stoppard’s name in the 60’s, could just as easily

be entitled “two characters in search of a plot” – and of the meaning of

life – as the courtiers, minor players from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, take

centre stage.

Whilst the real action unfolds mainly unseen, they wait,

Godot-like, for their entrances and exits, passing the time with existential

musings and witty word games.

Reuniting two original “History Boys” (Samuel Barnett, an anxious, unworldly

Rosencrantz and Jamie Parker’s more solid Guildenstern) Trevor Nunn’s

respectful production still impresses, though at times Stoppard’s clever

conceit now seems over-contrived and under-edited.

Theatre Royal Haymarket, Haymarket, SW1Y 4HT
0845 481 1870
Tube: Piccadilly

Circus
trh.co.uk
Until August 20
£17.00-£50.00

– Louise Kingsley