Race
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
By Tom Stoppard
Directed by Katrina Stevenson
Extended! Apr. 3 – 27, 2008
Thu. – Sat. 8pm, Sun. 4pm
Tickets: $24.50
Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts
Winner!
- Creative Loafing Top 10 Plays of the Decade
- Creative Loafing Best of the Bay – Best Play
- Creative Loafing 2008 Top 10 Production
- Jobsite Jobby – Best Supporting Actor – Paul J. Potenza
"This is a most remarkable and thrilling play. In one bound Mr. Stoppard is asking to be considered as among the finest English-speaking writers of our stage, for this is a work of fascinating distinction." – New York Times
Before winning an Oscar as a writer of Shakespeare in Love, Tom Stoppard delivered another ingenious comic retelling involving the Bard of Stratford-upon-Avon. In 1967 he dove into the world's most famous play, Hamlet, and retold it from the point of view of two bumbling support players. The entire world is a stage, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern play their part, finding themselves unwitting pawns in history's greatest tragedy.
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"This captivating blend of solemn soul-searching and slapstick comedy results in a night that spans the spectrum of human emotion, keeping the audience laughing throughout much of the play." – Washington Post
This contemporary classic of the theater was the winner of both the Tony and NY Drama Critics Circle awards when it premiered. Simply: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are the college chums of Shakespeare's Hamlet, and this is the story of what "really" happened behind the scenes. What were they doing there in Elsinore anyway? The Players come and go; Hamlet comes through reading words, words, words; foul deeds are done; Hamlet is sent abroad, escapes death; and in turn Rosencrantz and Guildenstern find their only true exit.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead has also drawn many parallels to another play – Samuel Beckett's absurdist Waiting for Godot, particularly in the main characters' feelings of lack of purpose and incomprehension of their situation.
In 1991, the play was turned into a film featuring Tim Roth and Gary Oldman as the title characters and Richard Dreyfuss as the Lead Player. The film won a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
Stoppard says of his play that “Quite a lot of solemn and scholarly stuff has been written about it…” but insists, “…whatever else it is, is a comedy. My intention was comic, and if the play had not turned out funny I would have considered that I had failed.”
Age recommendation: 12+ Contains some adult humor.
About the Artists
Jobsite’s production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is a star-studded affair with built-in Shakespearean cred for local audiences. Katrina Stevenson, who directed Jobsite’s wildly popular production of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), is reunited with her trio of actors in David M. Jenkins, Shawn Paonessa and Jason Vaughan Evans. Paul J. Potenza (The Pillowman, The Boys Next Door) joins in as the wily Lead Player, who escorts a band of rogue performers, which also doubles as the court of Elsinore. The merry band of players includes Kari Goetz, Jaime Giangrande-Holcom, Matt Lunsford and Michael C. McGreevy.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead features scenic design by Brian Smallheer, light design by Karla Hartley and costume design by Spencer Meyers.
Check out the cast and crew bios for more.
Tom Stoppard is the author of over two dozen plays and numerous screenplays. Stoppard is considered to be a master of comic invention, visual humor, and remarkably witty wordplay. He uses his considerable skills to investigate philosophical questions in an extremely entertaining manner. In 2007 Stoppard won a Tony Award for his play Coast of Utopia and was also knighted in his home of England.
