Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead

“This production, brilliantly directed by Adam Arian, a second-year MFA student, makes just about every moment visually, aurally and dramatically thrilling. His luminous vision is realized by the dazzling contributions of his designers who create a totally unified world which amounts to a jaw-dropping conflation of Waiting for Godot, The Rocky Horror Show, Men in Black and A Clockwork Orange.”

“The play presents huge directorial challenges, and Arian rises to the occasion with clever staging that offers visual interest to accompany the word-drunk script.”

“One can’t imagine a better landscape for Stoppard’s complex work. A rare, boldly envisioned work.”

“Ahh, the boat scene … The suggestion of a sail, the wonderful creaking sounds; it all made you lose your land-legs. If you missed this production you missed one helluva ride.”

“Rosencrantz and Guildenstern wear brown-checked suits and bowler hats (à la Godot’s Vladimir and Estragon), and you think: Okay. But then a pulsing rhythm and white neon stripes announce that Hamlet isn’t the only one “transformed” in Denmark. The king and his court have gone goth: white faces, black outfits, shoulders twitching in unison to an anti-disco beat.”

“On the deceptively simple set, the audience sits on two sides, with a polished wooden walkway in between. Wherever R&G turn, the stage traps them. They can’t escape, just disappear. Like Alice through the looking glass they enter an uncertain, possibly even unknowable realm.”