DramaSoc’s Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are dead

This September, DramaSoc presents a dramatic, comedic, tragic, bloody, romantic, rhetorical adventure.

Classic duo Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, revitalised in this production as ‘90s navel gazers, are longtime friends of the Danish prince Hamlet.

Through no effort of their own, they wander obliviously through William Shakespeare's play as iconic events unfold around them. Their dilemma: being minor characters in Hamlet, they were never granted much of a backstory, and as a result they have no memory of their lives. Including which one of them is supposed to be which.

Cue word games, thought experiments, and intellectual debates. Shakespeare and absurdism meet physical theatre in this exciting new production.

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is an existential absurdist adventure by Tom Stoppard. Told from the perspective of two of the most minor characters in Hamlet, the story focuses on two blundering best friends as they desperately searching for meaning in a meaningless world. This new production by DramaSoc is inspired by modern pop culture, examining the worlds of Shakespeare and absurdist theatre from a fresh and exciting perspective. Thrilling yet intellectual, playful yet devastating, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is one of a kind.

Directed by Freddy Thornton. An amateur production by DramaSoc, by special arrangement with Samuel French Ltd and NZ Play Bureau Ltd.

Approx. 130 mins including a twenty-minute interval. The show has moments of low-level violence, sexual references, and themes of death, depression, and suicide.