HUNTINGTON THEATRE COMPANY

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
ROSENCRANTZ &
GUILDENSTERN
ARE DEAD
BY TOM STOPPARD | DIRECTED BY PETER DUBOIS

CURRICULUM GUIDE
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Common Core Standards 3

Massachusetts Standards in Theatre 4

Artists 5

Themes for Writing and Discussion 8

Mastery Assessment 11

ROSENCRANTZ & Further Exploration 12

GUILDENSTERN
Suggested Reading 13

Suggested Activities 14

ARE DEAD
by Tom Stoppard
Notes 17

Directed by Peter DuBois

Sept. 20 – Oct. 20
Huntington Avenue Theatre

© Huntington Theatre Company Boston, MA 02115

September 2019

No portion of this curriculum guide may be

reproduced without written permission from
the Huntington Theatre Company’s Education
Department.

Inquiries should be directed to:

Meg O’Brien
Director of Education
mobrien@huntingtontheatre.org

This curriculum guide was prepared for

the Huntington Theatre Company by:
Dylan C. Wack | Teaching Artist Fellow
Alexandra Smith | Manager of Curriculum
and Instruction
Ivy Ryan | Teaching Artist Fellow
 COMMON CORE STANDARDS
IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
STANDARDS: Student Matinee performances and pre-show workshops provide unique opportunities for experiential learning and
support various combinations of the Common Core Standards for English Language Arts. They may also support standards in
other subject areas such as Social Studies and History, depending on the individual play’s subject matter.
Activities are also included in this Curriculum Guide and in our pre-show workshops that support several of the Massachusetts
state standards in Theatre. Other arts areas may also be addressed depending on the individual play’s subject matter.

Reading Literature: Key Ideas and Details 1
• Grades 9-10: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to
support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text.
• Grades 11-12: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to
support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the
text leaves matters uncertain.
Reading Literature: Key Ideas and Details 2
• Grades 9-10: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and
analyze in detail its development over the course of the text,
including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific
details; provide an objective summary of the text.
• Grades 11-12: Determine two or more themes or central ideas of
a text and analyze their development over the course of the text,
including how they interact and build on one another to produce
a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.
Reading Literature: Craft and Structure 5
• Grades 9-10: Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how
to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and
manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks), create such effects as
mystery, tension, or surprise.
• Grades 11-12: Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how
to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to
begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic
resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well
as its aesthetic impact.
Reading Literature: Craft and Structure 6
• Grades 9-10: Analyze a particular point of view or cultural
experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the
United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.
• Grades 11-12: Analyze a case in which grasping point of view
required distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what
is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm, irony, or understatement).

Reading Literature: Key Ideas and Details 3
• Grades 9-10: Analyze how complex characters (e.g. those with
multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of
a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or
develop the themes.
• Grades 11-12: Analyze the impact of the author’s choices
regarding how to develop related elements of a story or drama
(e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the
characters are introduced and developed).
Reading Literature: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas 7
• Grades 9-12: Analyze multiple interpretations of a story, drama, or
poem (e.g. recorded or live production of a play or recorded novel
or poetry), evaluating how each version interprets the source text
(Include at least one play by Shakespeare and one play by an
American dramatist).

ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD CURRICULUM GUIDE 3

MASSACHUSETTS STANDARDS IN THEATRE
ACTING
• 1.7: Create and sustain a believable character throughout a scripted or
improvised scene (By the end of Grade 8).
• 1.12: Describe and analyze, in written and oral form, characters’ wants,
needs, objectives, and personality characteristics (By the end of
Grade 8).
• 1.13: In rehearsal and performance situations, perform as a productive
and responsible member of an acting ensemble (i.e., demonstrate
personal responsibility and commitment to a collaborative process)
(By the end of Grade 8).
• 1.14: Create complex and believable characters through the integration of
physical, vocal, and emotional choices (Grades 9-12).
• 1.15: Demonstrate an understanding of a dramatic work by developing a
character analysis (Grades 9-12).
• 1.17: Demonstrate increased ability to work effectively alone and
collaboratively with a partner or in an ensemble (Grades 9-12).
READING AND WRITING SCRIPTS
• 2.7: Read plays and stories from a variety of cultures and historical
periods and identify the characters, setting, plot, theme, and conflict
(By the end of Grade 8).
• 2.8: Improvise characters, dialogue, and actions that focus on the
development and resolution of dramatic conflicts (By the end of
Grade 8).
• 2.11: Read plays from a variety of genres and styles; compare and
contrast the structure of plays to the structures of other forms of
literature (Grades 9-12).
TECHNICAL THEATRE
• 4.6: Draw renderings, floor plans, and/or build models of sets for a
dramatic work and explain choices in using visual elements (line, shape/
form, texture, color, space) and visual principals (unity, variety, harmony,
balance, rhythm) (By the end of Grade 8).
• 4.13: Conduct research to inform the design of sets, costumes, sound,
and lighting for a dramatic production (Grades 9-12).
CONNECTIONS
• Strand 6: Purposes and Meanings in the Arts — Students will describe
the purposes for which works of dance, music, theatre, visual arts, and
architecture were and are created, and, when appropriate, interpret their
meanings (Grades PreK-12).
• Strand 10: Interdisciplinary Connections — Students will apply their
knowledge of the arts to the study of English language arts, foreign
languages, health, history and social science, mathematics, and science
and technology/engineering (Grades PreK-12).
FIND US ONLINE!
Did you know the Huntington Theatre Company’s website provides
students and teachers opportunities to more deeply explore the season’s
offerings and learn about upcoming events in the Education department?
Utilizing the website at huntingtontheatre.org find the answers to the
following questions:
1. Which other plays by Tom Stoppard have been produced at the
Huntington Theatre Company? When was the last time a play by
Stoppard appeared in the Huntington’s season?
4 ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD CURRICULUM GUIDE
AUDIENCE ETIQUETTE
Attending live theatre is a unique experience with
many valuable educational and social benefits. To
ensure that all audience members are able to enjoy the
performance, please take a few minutes to discuss the
following audience etiquette topics with your students
before you come to the Huntington Theatre Company.
• How is attending the theatre similar to and different
from going to the movies? What behaviors are and
are not appropriate when seeing a play? Why?
• Remind students that because the performance
is live, the audience’s behavior and reactions will
affect the actors’ performances. No two audiences
are exactly the same, and therefore no two
performances are exactly the same—this is part of
what makes theatre so special! Students’ behavior
should reflect the level of performance they wish
to see.
• Theatre should be an enjoyable experience for
the audience. It is absolutely all right to applaud
when appropriate and laugh at the funny moments.
Side conversations with your friends during the
performance, however, are not allowed. Why might
this be? Be sure to mention that not only would the
people seated around them be able to hear their
conversation, but the actors on stage could hear
them, too. Theatres are constructed to carry
sound efficiently!
• Any noise or light can be a distraction, so please
remind students to make sure their cell phones
are turned off (or better yet, left at home or at
school!). Texting, photography, and video recording
are prohibited.
• Food, gum, and drinks are not permitted in the
theatre or lobby. This includes our lobby spaces
before, during, and after the performance.
• Students should sit with their group as seated by
the Front of House staff and should not leave their
seats once the performance has begun.
2. Who is the Artistic Director of the Huntington Theatre Company?
Who is the Managing Director? How long have they each been in
their respective positions? What are the primary responsibilities
of each of these jobs?
3. Your friend broke her foot and needs to use a wheelchair. What
accessibility services does the Huntington provide for patrons
like her?
4. Did you know the Huntington Theatre Company is on Facebook?
Like us at facebook.com/HuntingtonTheatre and
facebook.com/EducationAtHuntington.
 ARTISTS
Mr. DuBois served for five years as Associate Producer and Resident
Director at The Public Theater in New York City, preceded by five years
as artistic director of the Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, Alaska.
Mr. DuBois has directed multiple episodes of the podcast “Modern
Love,” including its debut with Broadway actress Lauren Molina,
who has also appeared in productions at the Huntington. Prior to his
work at Perseverance Theatre, Mr. DuBois lived and worked in the
Czech Republic where he co-founded Asylum, a multi-national squat
theatre in Prague. “Prague was this place I was just drawn to like a
magnet,” DuBois recounted to the Boston Globe in December 2007.
“The idea that there was a country being run by a playwright, Vaclav
Havel. I saved up some money and got on a plane. that was my first
experience really being in an artistic community, and that really made
me feel like a thriving artist, alive and excited.”

“Where I think institutions have real value is in the way that they can
support artists,” he continues. “Artists who work in the performing arts
have nothing if they don’t have an audience, and they have nothing if
they don’t have institutions behind them. So I love having a home for
me to do my work as an artist, but also providing a home for other
artists to do their best work.”

Peter DuBois
QUESTIONS:
1. As a producer and artistic director, Peter DuBois has played an
integral part in shaping theatre companies around the world.
PETER DUBOIS: DIRECTOR AND THE HUNTINGTON Research another theatre he has worked for (The Public Theatre,
THEATRE COMPANY’S ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Perseverance Theater, or Asylum). Compare and contrast their
The 2019-2020 season marks Peter DuBois’s twelfth season as Artistic mission statements, current and previous seasons, and educational
Director at the Huntington Theatre Company where his directing programs with those of the Huntington Theatre Company.
credits include many new works by some of the American theatre’s
2. In an interview with The Boston Globe, Peter DuBois explained
most exciting playwrights and classics by masters of the art form.
that after two and a half years he left Prague because he “really
His Huntington credits include musicals such as Sunday in the Park
wanted to explore what it meant to be an American artist.” What
with George (2016) and A Little Night Music (2015), new plays such
as Fall (2018), Can You Forgive Her? (2016), after all the terrible things
I do (2015), Smart People (2014), The Power of Duff  (2013), Rapture,
Blister, Burn (2013), Captors (2011), Sons of the Prophet (2011), Becky
Shaw (2010), Vengeance is the Lord’s (2010), and The Miracle at
Naples (2009), and classics such as Tartuffe (2017) and Romeo and
Juliet (2019).

His West End London credits include Sex with Strangers and Rapture,
Blister, Burn (Hampstead Theatre), All New People (Duke of York’s
Theatre), and Becky Shaw (Almeida Theatre). His New York credits
include Can You Forgive Her? (Vineyard Theatre); The Power of Duff with
Greg Kinnear (New York Stage and Film/Powerhouse Theater); Rapture,
Blister, Burn (Playwrights Horizons, 2013 Pulitzer Prize finalist); Sons
of the Prophet (Roundabout Theatre Company, 2012 Pulitzer Prize
finalist); Modern Terrorism, Becky Shaw, Trust with Sutton Foster, All
New People, and Lips Together, Teeth Apart (Second Stage Theatre);
Measure for Pleasure, Richard III, Mom, How Did You Meet the Beatles?,
Biro (The Public Theater); and The View From 151st Street, and Jack Goes
Boating with Philip Seymour Hoffman (LAByrinth Theater Company/The
T. CHARLES ERICKSON

Public Theater). His productions have been on the annual top ten lists
of The New York Times, Time Out, New York Magazine, The New Yorker,
Newsday, Variety, Entertainment Weekly, The Evening Standard, The George Hampe and Lily Santiago in the
Boston Globe, and Improper Bostonian, and he received an Honorable Huntington’s production of Romeo and Juliet
directed by Peter DuBois (2019)
Mention for 2013 Bostonian of the Year by The Boston Globe Magazine.

ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD CURRICULUM GUIDE 5

 makes someone an American artist? What kind of stories are
unmistakably American? Based on these definitions, who is an
American artist you admire and why?

3. Peter Dubois has directed many genres of theatre from world

premiere new plays to beloved musicals to creative spins on
classics. He has directed plays in every space imaginable from
an abandoned Salvation Army building in the Czech Republic
to the historic Broadway-style 890 seat Huntington Avenue
Theatre. Looking at DuBois’s eclectic body of work, what can
you learn about him as an artist? What patterns emerge in the
playwrights or plays he selects? What kind of stories interest
you? If you could put any story on a stage tomorrow, what
would it be and why?

PLAYWRIGHT TOM STOPPARD

Sir Tom Stoppard is a British playwright and screenwriter whose
career has spanned over fifty years, and whose works are often
regarded by critics and audiences alike as modern classics. His first
major play, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead has been produced
on the West End, Off-Broadway, and on Broadway several times
each, and is popular with regional theatres and community theatres Playwright Tom Stoppard
around the world.

Stoppard was born in 1937 in Czechoslovakia, in current day
southeastern Czechia, as Tomáš Straussler, to non-observant Jews
who worked for the Bata shoe company. On the eve of the Nazi
occupation of Czechoslovakia, the Straussler family was sent to
Singapore where Bata maintained a factory, escaping persecution
by the Nazi forces. Once in Singapore, Stoppard’s father began
working as a physician for the British army, which evacuated
the Strausslers once again before the invasion of Japan in 1942.
This time, the family escaped to Australia before and eventually
relocating to Darjeeling, India. Stoppard’s father would die in
Singapore when Stoppard was four, attempting to escape the
island. In Darjeeling, Stoppard attended an American Christian
school, where he began going by “Tom.” His mother married
a British officer, who gave Tom and his brother the surname
“Stoppard,” and moved the family to Great Britain in 1946. He
instilled in his step-sons a great sense of national pride in Britain,
teaching them the Cecil Rhodes quote: “To be born an Englishman
is to have drawn first prize in the lottery of life.” Stoppard would
spend the rest of his life in England, leaving school at seventeen to
work as a journalist in Bristol where he was eventually promoted
to humor columnist, featured writer, and drama critic, which would
lead Stoppard into the world of theatre.

Rene Augesen and Summer

KEVIN BERNE

Serafin in the Huntington’s

production of Tom Stoppard’s
Rock ‘n’ Roll (2008)

6 ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD CURRICULUM GUIDE

Stoppard’s first plays were radio dramas that he wrote while
reviewing work at the Bristol Old Vic, a theatre of high esteem that
employed actors such as Peter O’Toole, with whom Stoppard became
friends. Stoppard’s first play, A Walk on the Water, later retitled Enter
a Free Man, was produced in 1960 and was highly influenced by
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. The piece was picked up by an
agent and produced in Hamburg onstage. Later, it was also filmed
and broadcast on British television. Stoppard then traveled to London
to continue his work as a theatre critic. In 1964, the Ford Foundation,
a private fund set up by Henry Ford and his son Edsel to advance
the welfare of human life, gave Stoppard a grant which allowed him
to live in a mansion in Berlin for five months as something of an
artist’s retreat. During this period, Stoppard wrote a one act play
titled Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Meet King Lear, which would
eventually become Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. In the years
that followed, Stoppard shifted away from his work as a critic to focus
primarily on writing dramatic works. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are
Dead received its premiere at the National Theatre in London in 1967
and made Stoppard hugely popular in Britain. He would go on to
write other modern classics such as Travesties (1974), Arcadia (1993),
and Rock ‘n’ Roll (2006). His newest play, Leopoldstadt, will premiere
on the West End in January of 2020.
Stoppard’s career includes several writing and co-writing credits on
screenplays, including Shakespeare in Love (1998), Indiana Jones and
the Last Crusade (1989), and the screenplay of his magnum opus,
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990). Additionally, Stoppard
has translated works by many artists, including Czech playwright
Václav Havel. Stoppard is the recipient of four Tony Awards for Best
Play for Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1968), Travesties
(1976), The Real Thing (1984), and The Coast of Utopia (2007), as
well as an Academy Award and the Laurence Olivier Award.
In a 1981 interview with Nancy Shield Hardin published in
“Contemporary Literature,” Stoppard reflected on his approach to
playwriting. “It depends on what you start with,” he explained. “I
Alex Hurt as Rosencrantz and
Jeremy Webb as Guildenstern
in the Huntington’s production
of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern
Are Dead (2019)
suppose some plays start with the desire to write about a certain kind
of person: then you have something to go on. But I tend to start with
something more abstract: I tend to write about ideas. And then…come
the individuals…I rely quite a lot on the actors differentiating between
the characters because characters with a capital ‘K’ isn’t something
that interests me very much. Quite a lot of my lines could be given to
different people in the play without anything odd.”
In addition to Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, the Huntington
Theatre Company has produced four other plays by Tom Stoppard:
Night and Day (1982), On the Razzle (1984), The Real Thing (2005),
and Rock ‘n’ Roll (2008).
QUESTIONS:
1. In his youth, Tom Stoppard lived in several different countries
when his family was forced to flee from one country to another
during World War II. How might this experience have affected
his beliefs about home and stability? How is this reflected in his
writing and his style? Why did Stoppard become an absurdist in
his early work?
2. Stoppard discussed in the interview with Nancy Shield Harden
that he develops ideas before characters in his work, rather than
developing characters from the start. Where is there evidence of
this approach in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead? How fluid
is the language in the play? As Stoppard describes, could the
lines of dialogue be given to different people in the play without
anything odd coming of it? Why or why not?
3. Stoppard began his career as a theatre critic, which he gave up
due his outlook on theatre; “I operated on the assumption that
there was an absolute scale of values against which art could be
measured. I didn’t trust my own subjective responses,” he said
in a New York Times interview in 1989. In what ways can art be
critical? Which artists use their work as a form of criticism? Is art
an effective medium for criticism?
PAUL MAROTTA
ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD CURRICULUM GUIDE 7
THEMES FOR WRITING AND DISCUSSION
Danish Existentialist philosopher
Søren Kierkegaard (c. 1840)
EXISTENTIALISM
Existentialism is a philosophical frame of thinking which wrestles with
the concept of free will, and posits that humans are responsible for their
own actions and have agency over their fates and lives. This philosophy
developed in response to essentialism, the idea that all people are
born with an essential quality that they will live up to, no matter what
they do, whether it be because of fate, or God’s will, or some other
cosmic plan. Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), often
cited as the first existentialist philosopher, wrote in direct response to
his thoughts on Christianity and societal influences. Kierkegard was
against the state religion of the Church of Denmark, which he believed
corrupted Christian beliefs. He promoted the notion that one’s faith in
and love of God should not be subjected to the doctrine of the Church,
and that an individual is responsible for their faith in God. His views
would evolve over the years to include the concept that existence is
not predetermined by a higher power, and that societal roles are not
permanent; human existence comes before the essence of a person,
and as such the person grows without predestination. Similarly, French
philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) stated in Existentialism is a
Humanism that “in life, man commits himself and draws his own portrait,
outside of which there is nothing. No doubt this thought may seem
harsh to someone who has not made a success of his life. But on the
other hand, it helps people to understand that reality alone counts, and
that dreams, expectations and hopes only serve to define a man as a
broken dream, aborted hopes, and futile expectations.” Sartre believed
that no moral code or will of another could lead a person down any
particular path, but rather the actions of that person lead them to be
what and who they are.
Stoppard wrote Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead through an
existentialist lens but also as a critique of that philosophy. The
play begins with the titular characters playing a game of chance,
flipping a coin. As the first scene proceeds, the audience learns
8 ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD CURRICULUM GUIDE
that Rosencrantz has won eighty-five times in a row, all by calling
“heads.” Rosencrantz and Guildenstern express deep concern
with what they are meant to be doing in that moment and why
they should be doing it. In this first scene, Rosencrantz asks his
partner what they should do next, to which Guildenstern responds,
“Practically starting from scratch ... An awakening, a man standing on
his saddle to bang on the shutters, our names shouted in a certain
dawn, a message, a summons ... A new record for heads and tails.
We have not been ... picked out ... simply to be abandoned ... set
loose to find our own way ... We are entitled to some direction ...
I would have thought.” Here, Guildenstern has posed the essential
question of existentialism: Must humans find their own way without
any outside guidance or direction?
Stoppard’s play largely follows the two characters through the
same sequence of events they experience in William Shakespeare’s
Hamlet, in pursuit of the reason as to why Hamlet has been behaving
strangely. They are dispatched with Hamlet to England where they
expect the English to execute Hamlet, however they find the letter
that Hamlet has doctored to state that it is actually Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern who are to be executed. Rosencrantz responds simply to
the news. “They had it in for us, didn’t they? Right from the beginning”
he says. “Who’d have thought that we were so important?” Here,
Rosencrantz muses about another core concept of existentialism: The
belief that all human beings possess importance and it is the task of
living to discover precisely what that importance is. Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern do not make their own discovery until the very end of the
play, thus calling into question existentialism and essentialism.
By writing a play about existentialism, Stoppard questions the concept
of existentialism itself. As Rosencrantz and Guildenstern ponder what
they were sent for, what they must do, and why it all matters, the two
remain characters in a play. By existentialism’s own definition, the
two can never fully embody that philosophy because they exist on a
page. From the play’s first production in 1966 to the Huntington’s 2019
production and beyond, the two will always begin by flipping coins,
and will be whisked away to their deaths in England in Act III. The
world of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is inherently essentialist,
however Stoppard, at the end of it all, still calls into question the
validity of essentialism. In Act II, as the Player and his Tragedians find
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern after the two abandoned the troupe,
the Player furiously exclaims, “Don’t you see? We’re actors — we’re
the opposite of people!” Stoppard’s characters, drawing attention to
their status as actors, force audiences to self-reflect. If actors are the
opposite of people, then the audience is filled with people who are not
bound to the same fate Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Thus, Stoppard
leaves his audience with some degree of hope.
QUESTIONS:
1. What aspects of the world of Stoppard’s play force the play’s
characters to question their reality? How do simple things,
such as a game of chance or memory, make Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern know that something is off?
2. Which characters in the play seem more essentialist and which
seem more existentialist? Does the presence of Shakespeare’s
original characters in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead affect the
existentialism of this play or its characters?
3. Jean-Paul Sartre, one of existentialism’s philosophical pioneers, THEATRE OF THE ABSURD
defined this world view by explaining that “existence precedes
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is difficult to define in terms of
essence.” In your own words, define existentialism and
genre. It is often referred to as a tragicomedy, due to its funny pacing
essentialism. How are they different? Which philosophy do you
and dark subject matter. As discussed in this Curriculum Guide, it is
believe in?
also often described as existentialist. What unites the play’s many
4. Existentialists believe that as humans we control our own destiny. descriptors and philosophies embedded in it is the umbrella of the
Do you feel that this is true in reality? List some aspects of your Theatre of the Absurd.
life that you feel you do and do not have control over.
The Theatre of the Absurd was a theatrical movement centered in
Europe that began in the middle of the 20th century. The continent
ADAPTATION was still reeling from the effects of World War II: Millions of people
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is an adaptation of William killed in concentration camps across eastern Europe, major bombings
Shakespeare’s Hamlet, which means he draw inspiration from an from London to Berlin to France, the creation and deployment
existing work and then transformed it by adding new elements and of the atomic bomb. Is it possible to resume a normal life after
perspectives. Stoppard took two minor characters from one of the surviving these atrocities? How does one make sense of the years
most produced plays in history and asked the question, “what about between 1939 and 1945? The Theatre of the Absurd asks these very
them?” The play fills in the details of what Stoppard imagines could questions. Playwrights such as Tom Stoppard, Eugene Ionesco, and
have transpired in between the few scenes that Rosencrantz and Samuel Beckett all helped establish the movement, with their plays
Guildenstern appear onstage during Hamlet. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Rhinoceros, and Waiting for
Godot, respectively.
William Shakespeare was also a master of adaptation. Elements from
almost all of Shakespeare’s works can be traced back earlier stories The Theatre of the Absurd, as the name suggests, deals with absurdity,
or events that he adapted and reinterpreted for his own purposes. or the search for meaning in a meaningless world. Theatre of the
From the influence of the Wars of the Roses on his histories, to Absurd often straddles the line between existentialism, the belief
the Italian story of Romeus and Juliet that would someday become that humans are in control of their own lives and actions to fulfill
Romeo and Juliet, to Hamlet itself which is based upon a Danish
legend, Shakespeare adapted his source material for the same
reasons that Stoppard felt inspired to adapt Hamlet. The stories were
already well-known, so working from a familiar source allowed for
writers such as Shakespeare and Stoppard to take some liberties by
assuming their audience’s prior knowledge. Stoppard, for example,
begins Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead with relative stillness
and silence. Though many playwrights use their plays’ opening
moments to establish characters and lay the foundations for plot
points to come later, Stoppard trusts that his audience will already
understand his play’s connection to Hamlet based on its title and will
patiently wait to see what develops.

Artists also adapt earlier works in order to shed new light on the
original work’s central subject matter. Hamlet, as discussed in the
Further Exploration section of this curriculum guide, is a play about
mortality, morality, and familial trust. In the years following World
War II, these were all questions with which Stoppard and his fellow
existentialists were deeply preoccupied.

QUESTIONS:
1. Stoppard included some of the original text of Shakespeare’s
Hamlet in his play. What does Stoppard achieve by blending
the text in this way? How does it change the rhythm of
the storytelling and the development of the characters?
Does Stoppard’s use of Shakespeare’s words enhance your
understanding of the original play in any way?

2. Why do authors choose to adapt other works of literature? What

are the unique challenges and benefits of this kind of writing?

3. Research modern adaptations that transform plays, movies,

ERIC ANTONIOU

or television shows into another format. What kind of stories

seem to get adapted most often? Why might this be? Are there
instances in which the new version is considered more successful Campbell Scott in the Huntington’s
production of Hamlet (1996)
than the source material?

ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD CURRICULUM GUIDE 9

their purpose, and nihilism, the belief that life has no meaning and
no meaning should be imposed upon it. As such, many Absurdist
plays have minimal plots. In these plays, language is a barrier to
communication and prevents understanding rather than serving
as a tool for achieving recognition and clarity. In Rosencrantz &
Guildenstern Are Dead, Stoppard plays with the names of the
characters. For example, in Hamlet, Claudius misidentifies Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern, calling each man by the other’s name. In his own
play, Stoppard leans into this absurdity of this moment, and writes his
version of Rosencrantz as equally uncertain which identity belongs
to himself and which to his companion. In addition, Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern literally have difficulty understanding what the Hamlet
characters are saying. Rosencrantz, in an effort to diagnose Hamlet’s
mania, recounts his interaction with the Danish prince moments before:
“Six rhetorical and two repetition, leaving nineteen, of which
we answered fifteen. And what did we get in return? He’s
depressed! . . . Denmark’s a prison and he’d rather live in a
nutshell; some shadow-play about the nature of ambition,
which never got down to cases, and finally one direct question
which might have led somewhere, and led in fact to his
illuminating claim to tell a hawk from a handsaw.”
In this scene, Stoppard highlights the challenges of understanding
Hamlet’s behavior in the Shakespeare’s play, eventually concluding it
to be absurd nonsense.
Theatre of the Absurd is also characterized by metatheatricality,
a device in which a work of theatre expresses awareness that it
is theatre. This can be used for comedic effect and provides an
unsettling reminder to the audience that the people onstage are just
pretending. Halfway through Act II of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are
Dead, for example, the action pauses for a moment, at which time the
following exchange occurs:
ROSENCRANTZ: Fire!
GUILDENSTERN: Where?
Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett
at the Festival d’Avignon (1978)
10 ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD CURRICULUM GUIDE
ROSENCRANTZ: It’s all right — I’m demonstrating the misuse
of free speech. To prove that it exists. (He regards the audience,
that is the direction, with contempt-and other directions, then
front again.) Not a move. They should burn
to death in their shoes.
Here, Stoppard reminds the audience that as they watch the play,
they are being watched as well. That Rosencrantz tries to panic the
audience and fails is metatheatricality at work. The script calls for
it and the audience knows that it’s part of the play, however in an
instant, a genuine fear might occur in members of the audience,
as it seems that the play has been stripped away and all that is left
are actors.
The Theatre of the Absurd illuminates the challenges of efforts to
make sense of a senseless world. While the absurdist playwrights
do not seek specific answers, their works inspires reflection by
simultaneously being about everything and nothing. Their world is
one in which a simple coin flip can be both mundane and the most
important thing in the world.
QUESTIONS:
1. Identify specific elements of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are
Dead that qualify it as an absurdist work.
2. What does the phrase “language is a barrier to communication”
mean? If language is a barrier to communication in absurdist plays,
what is the purpose of the language they use? Provide an example
from Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead to support your answer.
3. The Theatre of the Absurd inspired a myriad of films and television
shows, including The Twilight Zone, Fight Club, and Black Mirror.
While much of the Theatre of the Absurd was written in response
to World War II, what are modern absurdist works responding
to? What part of modern society seems to be the catalyst for
absurdity?
 MASTERY ASSESSMENT
ACT I 8. What does the Player say that actors are?

1. Who is onstage at the beginning of the play? 9. What happened during the first performance the Players put on?

2. How are the characters dressed? 10. Why does the Player claim that Guildenstern is nobody special?

3. What are they doing? 11.  hat does Rosencrantz claim most people think of the
W
experience of being dead in a box?
4. How does the coin land every time?
12.  hat does Rosencrantz think is better: Being alive in a box or
W
5.  hat kind of animal does Guildenstern suggest throwing in
W
dead in a box?
the air to test the law of averages?
13.  ho do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern tell about the players
W
6. How many times in a row does the coin land on heads?
arriving?
7.  hat does Guildenstern hear as he is working through his
W
14. Who does Hamlet take offstage with him?
syllogism (in which a conclusion is drawn from two given or
assumed propositions, each of which shares a term with the 15. Who is Ophelia to Hamlet?
conclusion, and shares a common or middle term not present 16. What did Rosencrantz put under the foot of the Player?
in the conclusion)?
17. What do the actors perform before the full play is performed
8.  ccording to Rosencrantz, which body parts continue to grow
A for the King and Queen?
after death?
18. Where does Claudius intend to send Hamlet?
9. Who sent for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?
19.  hat kind of art does Guildenstern want to see the Player
W
10.  ho joins Rosencrantz and Guildenstern onstage? What do
W present?
they call the actors?
20. How many people die in the Murder of Gonzago?
11. Which member of the troupe is named?
21. Who did Hamlet kill?
12.  hich element of the blood, love, and rhetoric school must the
W
22. What does Hamlet bring onstage with him briefly?
actors perform with?
23. What must Rosencrantz and Guildenstern do with Hamlet?
13. Who is the first character to use Shakespearean language?
24. Who does the Soldier work for?
14. What does Claudius ask of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?
15. Who are Claudius and Gertrude?
ACT III
16. Which words does Guildenstern claim to forget how to spell?
1. Where are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?
17.  hat do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern expect to be the reason
W
2. Why does Guildenstern like boats?
for Hamlet’s behavior?
3. Who is on the boat along with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?
18.  escribe Hamlet’s relationship with Rosencrantz and
D
Guildenstern. How do they know each other? 4. What do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern do with a coin?
19.  hat game do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern play to pass
W 5. In which hand did Rosencrantz hold a coin?
the time? 6.  hat are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern supposed to give to
W
20. How does the game change after they see Hamlet walk by? the King of England?
21. What do they notice Hamlet doing? 7. Who has the letter?
22. Who exits before the end of the act? 8. How does Guildenstern compare death to boats?
23. How does Hamlet refer to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern? 9. What does Rosencrantz say he does not believe in?
10. What does the letter ask the King of England to do?
ACT II 11. What sound do they hear on the boat?
1. What does Guildenstern tell Hamlet at the top of Act Two? 12. Why must the actors leave for England?
2. How does Hamlet claim his mother and uncle are deceived? 13. According to the Player, what happens to old actors?
3.  ho thinks that things went well in their efforts to discover
W 14. What happens to the boat?
what is wrong with Hamlet?
15. Who is missing?
4. Which direction of the wind means that Hamlet is not crazy?
16. What does the letter say now?
5.  hich body part does Rosencrantz consider licking to discover
W
the wind direction? What does he ask Guildenstern to do to 17.  ccording to Guildenstern, where did he and Rosencrantz
A
help? go wrong?

6. What does Rosencrantz yell at the audience? Why? 18. Who kills the Player?

7.  hat play does Hamlet want the troupe of players to perform

W 19. What is special about the dagger?
for his uncle? 20. What news does the Ambassador share to the court?

ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD CURRICULUM GUIDE 11

FURTHER EXPLORATION
Actress Sarah Bernhardt
as Hamlet (1899)
SHAKESPEARE’S HAMLET
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is one of the most produced plays in
modern history. It is Shakespeare’s longest play and was originally
produced sometime in the late 1590’s or early 1600’s. As one of the
bard’s tragedies, Hamlet primarily examines darker themes such as
mortality, life after death, and murder.
The play centers on Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, as he grieves
the sudden loss of his father, while his uncle, Claudius, has become
king through his hasty marriage to Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude.
Early in the play, Hamlet is visited by the ghost of his father, who
reveals that he was murdered by Claudius. Unsure of whether he
can trust the vision of his father, Hamlet decides to “put an antic
disposition on” until he can get a better sense of what is going on.
Observing an alarming change in Hamlet’s behavior, Claudius and
Gertrude send for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet’s friends
from university, to try to make sense of his newfound madness.
Yet Hamlet remains committed to his act. He speaks nonsensically
to whoever will listen, insults Ophelia, the woman he loves, and
questions the meaning of life in his famous “to be, or not to be”
speech. Hamlet hires some travelling players to come to court and
perform a play with a similar plot to the murder of his father. When
Claudius angrily storms out of the performance, Hamlet takes this as
evidence that the apparition of his father spoke the truth and that
Claudius is guilty of the murder.
Soon, Hamlet accidentally murders Polonius, the king’s advisor, as he
spies on a meeting between Gertrude and Hamlet. Hamlet is banished
to England, where Claudius has arranged for Hamlet to be executed.
However, Hamlet escapes, condemning Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
to be executed in his place, and returns to Denmark. Upon his return,
he discovers that Ophelia has also died, following the death of her
father, Polonius. Polonius’s son, Laertes, challenges Hamlet to a duel.
12 ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD CURRICULUM GUIDE
Claudius employs Laertes to kill Hamlet with a poisoned sword and
to ensure Hamlet will not survive his return to court, while Claudius
poisons the goblet of wine that Hamlet will drink from. During the
fight, Gertrude takes a sip of the poisoned wine, Laertes strikes Hamlet
and he returns with a fatal blow to Laertes, and before Hamlet dies,
he attacks Claudius and kills him. Hamlet dies in the arms of his friend
Horatio, who informs the invading Fortinbras, Prince of Norway of
what has transpired. The play ends with Fortinbras on the throne
of Denmark.
Shakespeare’s treatment of the themes of death and mortality in
Hamlet did not reflect typical English sentiments about those topics
in the 1600s. The ghostly appearance of Hamlet’s father reflected the
Catholic belief that souls not forgiven of their sins at the time of their
death were sent to purgatory, but England was a Protestant nation
in Shakespeare’s time and belief in ghosts was rare. Hamlet also
discusses the meaning of life in his “to be, or not to be” speech, which
is often interpreted as Hamlet contemplating suicide, but most of
Shakespeare’s audience would have viewed suicide as a sin that would
send Hamlet directly to hell without hope of salvation.
Ultimately, Hamlet is a play about betrayal and the lengths to
which human beings will go to avenge those dear to them.
Though Shakespeare’s audiences may have been surprised by his
interpretation of those themes in Hamlet, the bard’s ability to present
universal human emotions, experiences, and truth is what allowed
his works to become enduring masterpieces that continue to inspire
self-reflection in contemporary audiences.
QUESTIONS:
1. Read Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” speech in Act III, Scene 1 of
Shakespeare’ play. What arguments does Hamlet present regarding
death and life? Research the context of this moment — is Hamlet
genuinely suicidal or is he pretending? Provide evidence from the
text to support your answer.
2. Compare and contrast the themes of Hamlet and Rosencrantz &
Guildenstern Are Dead. Where the plays explore similar themes,
describe how the plays treat them differently.
3. Consider the excerpts from Shakespeare’s Hamlet that Tom
Stoppard incorporated in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are
Dead. Why would Stoppard include these specific scenes?
How does Shakespeare’s original text influence the action of
Stoppard’s play?
4. Why do you think Hamlet remains a popular play today? What
parts of the play speak to you? Is there anything that does not
seem relevant to contemporary life?
LIMINALITY AND PALIMPSESTS
Theatre of the Absurd strives to make its audience feel uneasy by
calling into question the supposed reality onstage that the audience
is observing. To accomplish this, absurdist works such as Rosencrantz
& Guildenstern Are Dead rely heavily on liminality, the ambiguity
that occurs while going somewhere or completing some task. For
example, if someone is on a plane flying from Boston to Chicago,
where is the plan once it takes off from Boston’s Logan International
Airport? Obviously, one answer is simply “in the sky.” However, is the
plane in Massachusetts if it isn’t touching the ground there? It cannot
already be in Chicago. If the plane flies over other states on the way to
Chicago, did you visit those places? This is liminality, the grey area that
REFERENCES AND RESOURCES
exists during rites of passage, travels, or passages in time. Liminality SHAKESPEAREAN RESOURCES
plays a major role in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead and one • Folger Shakespeare Library
could argue that the entire plot occurs in a liminal space. We the Information about Shakespeare, as well as an
audience know the characters are in Denmark, though little reference online copy of the entire text of Hamlet:
is made to their surroundings outside of the scenes from Hamlet. www.folger.edu/online-resources
Even when it is made clear in Act 3 that they are on a boat, a boat is
a liminal space, as it is between Denmark and England, and not really • Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre The Encyclopedia
in either place while they are in transit. The play’s structure is also Britannica’s entry with a detailed biography,
contextual articles on Elizabethan literature,
liminal. At its core, it is the story of two minor characters while they
art, theaters and culture, and entries on famous
are offstage of the actual story — that of Hamlet, Price of Denmark.
Shakespearean actors, directors and scholars.
Stoppard’s inclusion of scenes from Hamlet ensures that the bulk
www.britannica.com/topic/Globe-Theatre
of the play feels somewhat like a waiting room where the mundane
activities, such as the flipping of coins, can occur. It is also a place
EXISTENTIALISM
where more remarkable events, such as a troop of actors appearing
out of nowhere, are also possible. • Jean-Paul Sartre’s “Existentialism is a Humanism”
• Crash Course’s video on Existentialism:
Absurdist theatre, including Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaDvRdLMkHs&t
also makes use of palimpsests, the remnants of something previous
in the current version of a thing. When you draw an image on a FILMS AND VIDEOS
piece of paper in pencil, and then erase it, there may still be an
impression of the original pencil marks on the page or perhaps • The “In a Box” scene from the National Theatre
a smudge from where the eraser did not quite remove all of the Revival in London:
graphite. If you were to draw a completely new image on that www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t5UTLkfoUs
same piece of paper that covers up and has nothing to do with • Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)
the previous image, parts of the original still may be somewhat
visible. The original image is a palimpsest, or the remains of what
was previously in the foreground. The Roman colosseum and the
Egyptian pyramids are palimpsests of the former empires that
inhabited Rome and Giza, respectively.

In Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Shakespeare’s words

act as a palimpsest for the audience. While the audience watches
a modern play written in contemporary English, scenes written in
Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter are interspersed as a reminder of
the source material and as a framing device for the story. The effect
can be jarring, as the audience hears the two types of dialogue in
a scene and will see characters speak in both manners throughout
the play. Much like liminality, palimpsests in Stoppard’s play are
meant to disorient the audience: If you cannot be sure which era
of play you are watching, you cannot be too comfortable as an
audience member.

QUESTIONS:
1. Define the terms liminality and palimpsests. In addition to the
examples provided in this article, what are some other real-life
examples of these two concepts? What additional examples
of each are in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead? Do they
effectively disorient the audience?

2. Why is it important to disorient the audience in Absurdist Theatre?

What is the desired effect on the audience’s experience of the
storytelling?

3. Given his personal biography, why might liminality and palimpsests

be particularly interesting to a writer like Tom Stoppard?

4. What are the in-between spaces in your life? In what ways do you
exist in liminal spaces? What are palimpsests in your own life?

ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD CURRICULUM GUIDE 13

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES
ACTING: THEATRE OF THE ABSURD B: Yes.
Playwright Tom Stoppard has said that you could rearrange which
character says which lines in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are
Dead and nothing weird would come of it. In this activity you will
explore the ways in which language can be used as a barrier to
communication, and how this phenomenon can actually reveal the
meaning in the storytelling, regardless of who says what.
For this activity, you will need hard copies of the neutral scenes
below, as well as scissors.
To start, discuss the ideas that make up the Theatre of the Absurd:
Language as a barrier to communication, liminality, metatheatricality,
and palimpsests. Discuss what it might be like for an audience to
watch a play that they don’t totally understand and that they are
not even meant to understand. Also define the term neutral scene,
a scene that is intentionally vague and leaves it up to the actors to
make choices that provide the scene with meaning. No words can be
added or taken away from the scene as it is written
Find a partner and choose who will play character A and who will
play character B. Read the following scene out loud together.
A: This is the worst.
B: Mmm I know.
A: There.
B: Happy?
A: I am now yes.
B: Good are you done?
A: OK now your turn.
B: OK No, this is the worst.
A: Mmm I know.
B: There.
A: Are you done?
Colin Keith-Johnston as Hamlet, Walter Hudd as Guildenstern
and Patrick Waddington as Rosencrantz in a modern dress
production of Hamlet, Kingsway Theatre, London (1925).
14 ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD CURRICULUM GUIDE
A: Good I thought you said you were done.
B: OK OK now anything else?
A: Yes. There.
Discuss and decide: What is happening here? Who are these
characters and what is their relationship? What are they physically
doing? Where is this scene happening? How does the scene
resolve? Make notes on your choices and then rehearse the scene,
incorporating your selected circumstances to add meaning. Share
your work with the rest of the class.
Next, take a moment to cut up the scene line by line. Mix the lines up
and randomly pull a new order for the lines without looking. Assemble
the new scene by either writing it down or laying the strips on a flat
surface. Character A will now have the first line, character B will have
the second line, and so on, regardless of which character said which
lines in the previous version. Read the new scene out loud. Does the
scene work if you are the same characters? What about if you trade
roles? Do the circumstances you chose for the previous version still
work? Or is there a new scenario the characters could be in? Discuss
and decide on whether to keep your circumstances or create new
ones. Rehearse the scene and share with the class.
Next, read the second scene according to each line’s original
character assignment. This may mean that one character speaks two
or more lines in a row, depending on the random order of the lines.
Does this version of the scene work for the original characters? What
is the new meaning of the scene? What scenario makes sense for this
version? Share with the class.
To wrap up, discuss how the scenes changed. How did you make
sense of your scene? What is it like to act in a scene that no longer
makes sense? How did you approach working on each new version
of the scene?
LENARE / GABRIELLE ENTHOVEN COLLECTION, VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM

Daniel Radcliffe as Rosencrantz and
Joshua McGuire as Guildenstern in the
50th anniversary revival of Rosencrantz &
Guildenstern are Dead at the Old Vic (2017)
ELA: ADAPTATION GUILDENSTERN: No.
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is an example of an adaptation
that pulls directly from the source material. The titular characters in
Stoppard’s play are supporting characters in another play, and the
action of the two plays follow the same span of time. Stoppard’s play,
however, imagines what is happening in ongoing offstage events while
the action of Hamlet, his source material, transpires onstage.
For this exercise, you will become a playwright of a similar adaptation.
Select a film, television series, or play with which you are familiar to
serve as source material. Once you have made your selection, list
every character from that source material that you can think of in 45
seconds on a piece of paper. Next, choose two supporting characters,
minor characters, or characters who do speak with each other during
the course of the source material. Imagine a set of circumstances in
which the two would have a conversation about an event in the source
material and take approximately 10 minutes to write a scene between
these two characters. The scene must include the following:
• A beginning, middle, and end.
• A setting.
• A reference to the source material’s protagonist.
• A moment of tension between these two characters.
• A surprise exit.
• A sound.
At the end of the 10 minutes, share your scene with a partner or small
group. Discuss: What was difficult about creating a scene between
these two people? What was easy? What would you title this new
story? How would the source material’s protagonist fit into the new
scene if you were to continue developing it?
ELA: TEXT ANALYSIS
Read this passage from Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead and
answer the questions that follow.
ROSENCRANTZ: It could go on forever. Well, not for ever, I
suppose. (Pause.) Do you ever think of yourself as actually
dead, lying in a box with a lid on it?
MANUEL HARLAN
ROSENCRANTZ: Nor do I, really .. . . It’s silly to be depressed
by it. I mean one thinks of it like being alive in a box, one
keeps forgetting to take into account the fact that one is
dead . . . which should make all the difference . . . shouldn’t
it? I mean, you’d never know you were in a box, would you?
It would be just like being asleep in a box. Not that I’d like to
sleep in a box, mind you, not without any air-you’d wake up
dead, for a start, and then where would you be? Apart from
inside a box. That’s the bit I don’t like, frankly. That’s why I
don’t think of it . . . Because you’d be helpless, wouldn’t you?
Stuffed in a box like that, I mean you’d be in there forever.
Even taking into account the fact that you’re dead, it isn’t
a pleasant thought. Especially if you’re dead, really . . . ask
yourself, if I asked you straight off — I’m going to stuff you
in this box now, would you rather be alive or dead? Naturally,
you’d prefer to be alive. Life in a box is better than no life at
all. I expect. You’d have a chance at least. You could lie there
thinking — well, at least I’m not dead! In a minute someone’s
going to bang on the lid and tell me to come out. (Banging
the floor with his fists.) “Hey you. Whatsyername! Come out
of there!”
QUESTIONS:
1. How do you imagine Rosencrantz feels as he delivers this
monologue? How can you tell?
2. Does Rosencrantz come to a conclusion about life in a box versus
death in a box? What does he think about those options?
3. How does Rosencrantz use questions in this monologue? What is
he wondering about?
4. Is this monologue grounded in hope or despair? How does it
change its perspective throughout? When do these changes
happen and what thoughts prompt them?
5. What do you make of Guildenstern’s silence during this
monologue?
ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD CURRICULUM GUIDE 15
 Alex Hurt as Rosencrantz and

PAUL MAROTTA
Jeremy Webb as Guildenstern
in Huntington’s production of
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern
Are Dead (2019)

DESIGN: PHYSICALIZE THE SPACE

Among the challenges of staging an Absurdist play is designing a setting
that is clear enough for characters to interact with while not being too
literal or realistic in its representation of the play’s setting. This is where the
concept of liminality and palimpsests may come in handy (see “Liminality
and Palimpsests” in the For Further Exploration for more information).

Create a scenic design for a production of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern

Are Dead using a blank sheet of paper, a ruler, and pencils. Set up your
BRANDENBERG/WNET CHANNEL 13 NEW YORK

paper by holding it in a landscape orientation and draw a straight line

approximately two thirds the way down the sheet of paper. The larger
space above the line is your “stage.”

List the locations where various scenes of the play take place, such
as the castle at Elsinore, the boat in the third act, halls around the
castle, etc. Next, list what details of the play’s setting feel especially
important: What details are absolutely necessary in order to make
a scene happen? What elements do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
directly interact with?

Gary Oldman as Rosencrantz in Consider: Would it be possible to replace a literal object with
the film version of Rosencrantz & something more representative or symbolic without changing the way
Guildenstern are Dead (1990)
the characters use it? For example, do chairs and tables need to be
literal chairs and tables or are there other things the characters could
use in the same way? On the stage space of your paper, sketch out a scenic design that is simultaneously representative of nowhere but can
also be used to represent very specific settings in the play. Do your best to draw what you would want the scenery to look like but remember
that your ideas are the most important part of this assignment!

Present your design to your class and compare and contrast what your peers created. What elements appear across multiple designs? What
elements are unique to individual designers’ interpretations? Discuss: How would your design help tell this story? In a non-literal piece of
theatre, why is it important to be specific in your design work?

16 ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD CURRICULUM GUIDE

 NOTES

ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD CURRICULUM GUIDE 17

 46 UE
06
11 EN
02 V
A NA

5-
, M TO
O NG
ST N T I
N
BO HU
4
26
2019-2020
STUDENT MATINEES
THE PURISTS — SEPT. 27
ROSENCRANTZ &
GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD — OCT. 3
QUIXOTE NUEVO — NOV. 22
SWEAT — FEB. 14
OUR DAUGHTERS,
LIKE PILLARS — APR. 16
18
THE BLUEST EYE — MAY 7
ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD CURRICULUM GUIDE