Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead is a richly inventive play in which the playwright retells Shakespeare’s Hamlet through the eyes of two of its minor characters, Hamlet’s treacherous friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Vaguely conscious that they are bit parts in a much bigger story of which they have no direct knowledge, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern inhabit a world completely beyond their grasp.

Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead was first staged in London at the National Theatre in 1967, and was made into a film in 1990. It is revived in this production for the Theatre Royal Haymarket by director Sir Trevor Nunn, who staged it at Chichester Festival Theatre earlier in the year.

Stoppard is the multi-award-winning author of plays including Jumpers, Arcadia, The Real Thing, Hapgood, Rock ‘N’ Roll and The Coast Of Utopia.

Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead stars Samuel Barnett and Jamie Parker in the title roles. The pair both appeared in the National Theatre’s hugely successful production of Alan Bennett’s The History Boys. Since then they have appeared between them at venues including Shakespeare’s Globe, the Bush theatre, the Menier Chocolate Factory and the Tricycle theatre.

For more about Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead at the Theatre Royal Haymarket read the First Night Feature or the Big Interview with Jamie Parker.