Fauquier Community Theatre is delighted to present the tragic comedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, playwright Tom Stoppard’s take on William Shakespeare’s Hamlet featuring the two infamous minor characters.

As the play opens, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern find themselves on their way to Elsinore to visit their childhood friend Hamlet, only to find that there is, indeed, something rotten in the state of Denmark.  In order to ‘glean what afflicts’ their friend, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern try to get information from the main characters (who continually ignore them) and solve the mysterious cause of Hamlet’s lunacy, unaware that they are merely pawns in a much larger game of chess. As soon as they seem to make some progress they are shipped off to England to escort Hamlet, sailing quixotically, to their impending doom (it’s not just a clever title). During their journey they are entertained, mystified, and baffled by a troupe of traveling tragedians, led by the Player.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead has been a crowd pleaser since it premiered 50 years ago at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1966, and it remains Stoppard’s most famous play. The success of the play is due to Stoppard’s keen sense of timing, dialogue, ability to simplify worldly concerns into the flip of a coin, and his ironic humor that colors the story of the ill-fated pair.

Director Timothy Bambara and designers Maggie Bausch, Peter Mumford and Bill Speidel put a unique spin on the play, presenting ‘the greatest show on earth’, incorporating turn of the 20th century circus and carnival elements.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead features Will McLeod as Guildenstern and newcomer Tristan Cooper as Rosencrantz.  Veteran actor/producer Don Richardson takes the helm as the Player, with Zach Thaler playing Hamlet.  The cast features Kevin Stokker as Claudius, Maggie Bausch as Gertrude, Hannah Burnham as Ophelia, Gene Schmiel as Polonius, Peter Mumford as Alfred, and Hannah Butler, Kendra Coleman and Cliff Rieger as the Tragedians.