Tom Stoppard once described his artistic goal as follows:

I realized quite some time ago that I was in it because of the theatre rather than because of the literature. I like theatre, I like showbiz, and that’s what I’m true to…. I’ve benefited greatly from Peter Wood’s [a London theatre director] down-to-earth way of telling me, ‘Right, I’m sitting in J16, and I don’t understand what you’re trying to tell me. It’s not clear.’  There’s none of this stuff about, ‘When Faber and Faber bring it out, I’ll be able to read it six times and work it out for myself.’ (Quoted Hayman, p. 8)

Some of us are drawn to solving play-puzzles, so I hope that this introduction to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (which I confess, I have read at least six times) proves helpful. This is an honest and funny play. Stoppard brilliantly revisits Shakespearean notions of life and death. (more…)