Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, often referred to as just
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, is an
absurdist,
existentialist tragicomedy by
Tom Stoppard, first staged at the
Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1966. The play expands upon the exploits of two minor characters from
Shakespeare's Hamlet, the courtiers
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The action of Stoppard's play takes place mainly "in the wings" of Shakespeare's, with brief appearances of major characters from
Hamlet who enact fragments of the original's scenes. Between these episodes the two protagonists voice their confusion at the progress of events of which—occurring onstage without them in
Hamlet—they have no direct knowledge.