University of Virginia Library

Rosencrantz And Guildenstern
Are Dead

Randy Oglesby Plays Rosencrantz

"You Make Me Look Ridiculous In There"

Lois Garren, Costume Designer

by Tom Stoppard

Pins A Doublet On Randy Oglesby While Others Look On

THE VIRGINIA PLAYERS

Arthur Greene Plays The Player

"It Costs Little To Watch, And Little More
If You Happen To Get Caught Up In The Action."

Larry Alaimo Plays Guildenstern

"I Looked Just As Ridiculous As You Did."

CABELL HALL OCTOBER 21 TO 24

William Simpers, Hamlet, Cries, "It Hath Made Me Mad!"
While Ophelia, Susan B. Hardwicke, Sobs In Confusion

David Weiss, Director

Stops Rehearsal To Explain Movements In A Scene Where The Courtiers Appear

CAST

                   

Rosencrantz	Larry Alaimo
Guildenstern	Randy Oglesby
Player	Arthur Greene
Gertrude	Ellen Mease
Claudius	Bill Williamson
Hamlet	W. Simpers
Polonius	Mark Pikenton
Stage Manager	Rich Michaels
Costumes	Lois Garren
Technical Director	La Vahn Hoh

"Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" is a paraphrase of
Horatio's line from the Shakespearian tragedy "Hamlet." It is also
the name of Tom Stoppard's ingenious play to be presented in
Cabell Hall auditorium from Wednesday through Saturday nights.

Mr. Stoppard was a reporter and drama critic for a Bristol
newspaper when he wrote the play for the Edinburgh Festival in
1966. Then "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern" went on to London
in 1967. After several month's success the show was produced on
Broadway, where it also succeeded overwhelmingly.

In Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and in Stoppard's play, King
Claudius hires Hamlet's friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to
root out the cause of his nephew's anguish. In both plays they
accomplish virtually nothing. But Mr. Stoppard probes deeper
into the personalities of these two; they become the major
characters while the others carry out Shakespeare's plot in the
background. Also, the Player receives much more emphasis in his
play; Mr. Stoppard likewise changes the tragedians from a
relatively shallow-surfaced group of actors to a highly
characterized band of outcasts.

Because of the nature of the play's dialogue and theme,
"Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" may be classified as an
absurd play. Many of the lines seem nonsensical, ambiguous or
unrelated to the general trend of thought, but in fact, they are
essential; the dialogue between Guildenstern and Rosencrantz
reveals their knowledge (or lack of it) of themselves, of each
other, and of the situation into which they have been conveyed.

(Tickets are $1.50 for Wednesday and Thursday evenings, $2.00 for
Friday and Saturday. For reservations call Minor Hall, 924-3051, between
2 and 5 p.m.)

Guildenstern And Rosencrantz Gaze In Befuddlement As Hamlet

Cries "I Know A Hawk From A Hand Saw"

By Andy Stickney, Rick Smith,
and Susan Hardwicke