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Summary: Complete insanity experienced by readers & characters alike
Review: Although Waiting for Godot can honestly be considered one of the first landmarks in the theater of the absurd, Tom Stoppard truly creates an incredibly funny, thought-provoking mastepiece with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Stoppard uses two minor characters of Hamlet and views the Shakespearean play through their eyes. A play mainly about existentialism and the inability to take action, Rosencrantz and Guildentern play a game of questions when they should really be looking for answers. The play keeps readers confused as there is no definite line between reality and fiction. They seek to control a future that is prescripted. In truth, are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern dead or merely pawns of the playwrite? An incredible play and a must read for all theater-lovers, Shakespear-readers or absudists.
Rating: 
Summary: Funny Twist on a Historic Play
Review: In this vaude-ville style tragic comedy, by Tom Stoppard, two very insignificant characters taken from one of William Shakespeare's most famous plays, "Hamlet", witness the tragic story of the Prince of Denmark in a fly-on-the-wall perspective. The book is surprisingly humorous and simplistically funny. The naive and idiotic antics of Rosencrantz and the insightful and intellectual personality of Guildenstern make for a uniquely comic portrayal of the two characters that are doomed to an undeniable fate. This short play presents a great twist on the historic play inviting new personalities, new scenes and new perspectives on the tragic story. Readers end up meeting the "players", who have a fairly small role in the original Hamlet play, and get to know their comical and perverse personalities that make the play interesting and intriguing. Overall, this was a wonderful story, with unique twists and humorous dialogue rounding out two fo Shakespeare's most flat characters.
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Summary: Brilliantly Witty
Review: A beautiful play on the friends of Hamlet, Rosencratz and Guildenstern. While giving the tragedy of Hamlet from the totally different perspective of these two side characters, Stoppard delves into different questions and philosophies with brilliant word games. A must read!
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Summary: If you can't get enough of Hamlet...
Review: For those of us, yours included, who absolutely enjoy and revere Hamlet, this is the next logical sequence after reading Hamlet. Although not on the level of Hamlet by any means - but, then again, what is? - Ros and Guil(as called in the play) are Dead proves to be a witty and fun play, nonetheless. With all of the carnage and gratuitous death witnessed in Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern prove undoubtedly the most undeserving victims, and undeniably the most inscrutable and ambiguous characters who face their deaths. They know virtually nothing of the circumstances and we, in turn, know virtually nothing about them as well. Are they friends of Hamlet at Elsinore to help the troubled Prince in his time of despair while half-heartedly serving the King? Or, conversely, are they conniving duplicitous informers who know about Hamlet's seemingly impending death in England? Stoppard gives intriguing and clever dialogue between our two clueless and unsuspecting heroes. A fun play with a genuine and authentic melange of comedy and intensity. Recommended for all Hamlet enthusiasts - just don't expect the greatness of Shakespeare.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent on Several Levels
Review: R&G Are Dead has much to recommend it. It is the story of two of the bit players from Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. If you haven't read or seen Hamlet, the book will probably not be of much interest, but, in a nutshell, R&G are Hamlet's school chums who are called to Denmark by Hamlet's uncle, the King of Denmark, given the task of cheering him up and, when this fails, and the King realizes that Hamlet is a threat to his life, are given the task of sending Hamlet to his death. Hamlet turns the tables on this plot and has R&G killed instead. R&G, although bit players, are actually in a surprising number of scenes (most of which are cut out from stage and film productions of Hamlet) and this play, interweaving these scenes with others, produces a rich picture of these two characters, entirely missing from Shakespeare's epic play. The most obviously interesting part of this work is its attempt to explain why these characters die. When you learn at the end of Hamlet that R&G have died, you are left with a nagging sensation that something is wrong. This play fleshes this out. All of Shakespeare's tragedies are, by definition, bloody (as the Players in this work make evidently clear) but R&G's deaths are not demanded by the plot or by the passions of any of the characters. We do not dwell on R&G's deaths in Hamlet because more important and tragic events consume us. This book makes us focus on the gratuitousness of R&G's deaths. In addition, it makes their deaths as tragic as those of the main characters in Hamlet by putting them the center of the story. Of course, we do not get any real answers as to why these characters die. Other than by changing the story of Hamlet, there can be no answer to this question. However, simply dwelling for a longer time on these characters' fate at least gives their deaths importance, if not meaning. On another level, this book deals with themes of fate and luck. R&G have been swept up in events beyond their understanding and/or control. This book takes a philosophical approach to these issues (and definitely is reminiscent of Waiting For Godot). Since we can all identify with this to some extent, R&G's deaths become compelling and as tragic as Hamlet's death. Finally, much of this work is comedic. R&G do provide comic relief at various points in Hamlet, so this play does well to play up the comedic aspects of their lives. Even if you have no interest in the deeper meanings of this work, you will enjoy it for the comedy.
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Summary: Waiting for Godot meets Abbot & Costello
Review: I've always thought you had to be in a very peculiar mood to truly enjoy and appreciate Waiting for Godot. It's such a fine balance between tragedy and comedy, it's easy to sway one way or the other, either laughing at them and not caring about them or caring about them too much to laugh at them. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead is the same type of play, but much easier on the reader. There are truly funny, funny scenes in this play, many of them, scenes worthy of Abbott & Costello. Perhaps as a result, it is easier to care about the characters, even as you're laughing at their haplessness, and to echo their philosophic cries into the darkness. So I think this play outdoes the play it copies. I would rather watch it, or read it, anyway. A word about the Shakespeare -- sure, it adds to the play to know something about Hamlet, but it's probably not necessary. And I don't really think this "logically follows" after Hamlet, like some kind of sequel. They are very, very different plays. The jumping off point is simply that in Hamlet, "R & G" die deaths that don't really make any sense -- and no one really cares. Perfect philosopical place to start an absurdist play.
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Summary: Brilliance in Modern Theatre and Traditional Existentialism
Review: There is a clear charm to existentialism that can only be defined as nothingness. One could hardly be faulted for finding the theology and writing style to be dry and repetitive--it is. And that is where its charm lies. The truthfulness and revelation of the human thought pattern is captured by existentialism as no other writing style. While most of the best existentialist pieces are in the form of plays, they are notably more enjoyable to read than to watch. Within this realm of thinking, one of the greatest works is Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is a piece derived from the two wayward and tragic messengers of Shakespeare's Hamlet. The entire work seems to be inspired by the scant appearances of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two of Hamlet's trusted friends. At one point during the play, a single line stands out vividly: "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead." In the certainty with which this line is delivered, it is not surprising that it was singled out as the inspiration of another playwright. The play is the story of how the two men fall into trouble after trouble as they try to complete their errand. It also shows their struggle with their good friend's declining sanity. At the same time, they explore the nature of man through several word games and trials of chance. Throughout the book, scenes of maddeningly circling dialogue is interrupted by "sensible" dialogue from Shakespeare's original. This combination of not only communication styles, but language usage helps to add a confusing effect to the flying dialogue. There are several lines that almost come at you like a pesky bug--"Heads."--and no matter how you swat at them, they stay, and multiply. This very point is indicative of Stoppard's investigation of human nature. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is a great piece for someone who already has a firm enjoyment of running in circles and bouncing off one brick wall only to hit another. Though it universally gathers the very essence of life together and displays it in an open forum, it is not something to read/view on a empty stomach. At least a beginning knowledge of existentialism is nearly essential if you hope to be awake by the end of the third page. Another wonderful play for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern fans is Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett.
Rating:
Summary: Charming
Review: I bought this after reading Hamlet at school. I am a weird one and I developed an obsession for rosencrantz and guildenstern so you can imagine how thrilled I was to get this book. However, it resembles Waiting for Godot a LOT, and Waiting for Godot is the superior of the two, so if you only want one Theater of the Absurd, go for Godot...unless you have an unexplainable R & G obssesion like me! Lol.
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Summary: Proud comical look at the Bard's fools
Review: The play is about the two Shakespearean bit players trying to diciefer what there purpose is in the mist of the play Hamlet.
These two fools try to comicaly fight fate to save themselves while at the same time trying to find a purpose in the strange world of shakespeare. I love this perspective of Hamlet. It is truely a comical look at how even the insignifcant look for purpose when often there is none to be found. There is a lot of great diaolog and I had to laugh when Rosencranzt almost stumbles on to his own version of to be or not to be. But he can't quite get started. They just can't figure out what is going on or what they are supposed to do. The play is full of wit and philosophical banter which plays on Shakespeare and the theater in general. Loved Hamlet and so this play really gets a rise out of me. It may be worth reading Hamlet again if you haven't in a while just to get in the mood of the play. It is basically the story of two guys wondering how they got in the middle of a story they don't understand. I think shakespeare would have loved to have written this play. If you are unfamilur with Hamlet read it, if you are read Hamlet again it is a joy, than read this.
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Summary: Shakespeare was a crowd pleaser.
Review: R&G gets right to the meat of philosophy in a way that is both original and entertaining. Stoppard takes the two least significant doomed characters of "Hamlet" and creatively explores their own universe. His language, his thoughts are all beautiful. I find it has helped me clarify many of my own ideas about life, death, and the significance thereof. DO NOT MISS THIS PLAY! And please do NOT see the film first. You'll understand why after you have read the book.
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