Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead presented by Saint Sebastian Players at St. Bonaventure Church

The play concerns the misadventures and musings of two minor characters from Hamlet who are childhood friends of the prince, focusing on their actions, with the events of Hamlet as background. The duo are the leading characters in this version, appearing onstage here when they are offstage in Shakespeare's play, except a few times with the events of both plays coincide. In Hamlet, the King uses Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to discover Hamlet's motives and plot against him. Hamlet, however, mocks them derisively and outwits them. Thus, the action in Hamlet, while typically viewed as tragic, is largely nonsensically comical from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's perspective.