Following in the footsteps of Matthew,
William Shakespeare offers no differentiation between
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in his play, Hamlet.
The two always appear together, never separately,
and are treated by Shakespeare as a single entity.
Using this oversight as the basis for a screenplay, the great
Tom Stoppard gives us Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead,
a delightfully funny and cerebral movie in which all of Hamlet happens
“off-stage” as our perspective follows the extremely minor characters
of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who never seem quite able
to determine which one is who…