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.

Seeking:
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern: a pair of schoolmates and childhood friends of Hamlet. They forget who they are quite often. Rosencrantz is simple-minded and is okay with taking things at face value and letting other people think into it. Guildenstern is more of a thinker and worries what the consequences of an action will have on him and what the implications will be.

The Player: A traveling actor with his fair share of wits. He speaks of theatre being only about Love, Blood, and Rhetoric. Stating that everything must contain blood, that it is compulsory and that most things end in death. He is often keeping tabs on the young boy Alfred (one of his tragedians).

Hamlet: the Prince of Denmark, nephew to Claudius. Throughout the play he seems to be putting on a different face for different people much like he does in Shakespeare's work.

Tragedians: traveling with the Player, including Alfred. They provide a chorus for the audience and react to specific things that the player says. The Player is often called a puppet master because of the way he controls them as well as everyone else in the play.

King Claudius: the King of Denmark, Hamlet's uncle and stepfather. Sends for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to learn what afflicts Hamlet. Then send the three off to England with a letter to the English king stating that, as a favour to him and Denmark, Hamlet be killed on the spot.

Gertrude: the Queen of Denmark, and Hamlet's mother. Polonius: Claudius's chief adviser. He sees through most of Hamlet's lies and acts but doesn't care enough to bring it to too much attention. Ophelia: Polonius's daughter. She drifts across the stage from time to time, though no mention of her death is ever present in the play.

Horatio: A friend and schoolmate of Hamlet. He has the last line of the play in the scripted work, which is a direct quote from Hamlet. He says these lines as he is holding his dead friend.

Fortinbras: the nephew of the King of Norway. Appears at the end of the play to take over Denmark since the hierarchy has fallen.