Two Elizabethans walk into a tragedy. They just don’t know it yet.
There are plays that tell a story, and then there are plays that gently (and sometimes gleefully) pull the floor out from under it. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead does the latter, asking us to laugh while it quietly questions whether any of us is really in control of the plot.
Tom Stoppard’s iconic dark comedy takes two minor courtiers from Hamlet and hands them the spotlight. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, childhood friends of the prince, are summoned to court for reasons they can’t remember, dropped into a story they don’t understand, and left to make sense of a universe that seems determined not to explain itself.
Director Bill Krauss leans into the play’s playful unease, crafting a production that embraces uncertainty, theatrical illusion, and the strange comfort of stories we keep telling ourselves — especially when we’re not sure what comes next.
A Fresh Lens
In a bold casting choice, women step into the three leading roles — Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and the Player. The text remains unchanged, but the emotional terrain subtly shifts.
“They’re not playing men or women,” Krauss explains. “They’re playing people.” Longstanding female friendships, he adds, carry different rhythms, tensions, and intimacies, bringing new vulnerability and complexity to characters often played for pure comedy.
Though rooted in Shakespeare, R&G feels uncannily contemporary. Its questions — about agency, truth, identity, and whether we’re protagonists or supporting characters in our own lives — land with particular force in a world that often feels chaotic and unscripted.
“We’re all figuring it out as we go,” Krauss says. “That’s life. And that’s the play.”
You don’t have to know Hamlet to enjoy the show, though those who do will catch extra layers of wit and irony. For anyone wanting a refresher, Cosmos Theatre is offering a free screening of the BBC’s Hamlet starring David Tennant on February 22 at 2pm as a gift to the curious, the rusty, and the Shakespeare-curious alike.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead will play in the Cosmos Theatre, Prescott, Feb. 26–March 1 and March 5–8. Tickets are available now, visit CosmosTheatreArs.org.
