WISH-LIST WEDNESDAY: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

The poster for the film adaptation

Following a recent deep dive into the best known shows from the history of the Edinburgh Fringe, I felt it would be pertinent to give a proper spotlight to by far the oldest success story to come out of the world's biggest performing arts festival. An early work of Sir Tom Stoppard's, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" had its world premiere at the 1966 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, after the playwright had spent 5 months in Germany writing it, having received a grant from the Ford Foundation. Considerable critical acclaim in Edinburgh led to a transfer to the Old Vic in London, where it ran for around15 months, between 1967 and 1969.

"Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" tells the story of two courtiers, both minor characters, from Shakespeare's masterpiece "Hamlet", taking place largely "in the wings" whilst the principal cast are coming in and out, occasionally acting out fragments of the original scenes. The play has often been compared with Samuel Beckett's "Waiting For Godot", in that the two characters on whom the focus is almost exclusively kept almost feel like two respective halves of a single character.

Daniel Radcliffe and Joshua McGuire at the Old Vic in 2017

Stoppard's breakthrough work made its broadway bow whilst it was still running at the Old Vic, opening at the Alvin Theatre (currently the Neil Simon Theatre) in October 1967, and later transferring to the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, where it ran until October 1968, a run of about a year, during which it won 4 Tony awards from 8 nominations. With a film adaptation also having been made in the 90s, starring Gary Oldman, to this date Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead remains the most successful play to ever come out of the Edinburgh Fringe.