For more than sixty years Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard has been performed all over the world and has thus become a beloved and appreciated classic of contemporary theatre.
In this new production of the play, the director has decided to mix Stoppard's English humour with the comic tradition of the Commedia dell’Arte, to create a show that explores the profound existentialist/philosophical reflection of the original text, enhancing the comic and emotional power that characterises the pièce.
The text is a Revisited Hamlet, peeped through the keyhole through the dabbling eyes of the two protagonists Rosencrantz and Guildenstern who, when they look at the whole story of the Danish prince, only grasp its surreal and farcical traits.Shakespeare in Love, in which he snuck behind the scenes of Romeo and Juliet, while with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead he throws himself headlong into the backstage of Amleto. In fact, he takes two secondary characters from Shakespeare's Amletus, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and makes them the protagonists of a play with bizarre overtones.
On stage, a couple of great actors - Francesco Pannofino and Francesco Acquaroli, respectively as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern - become a duo of tragicomic masks, accompanied by Paolo Sassanelli in the role of the Capocomico.
At the centre of our staging is a large scenic machine, a medieval contraption that mixes the theatre/carriage of the Commedia dell’Arte with the two-storey stage typical of Elizabethan theatre; a playful and ever-changing set design, in constant movement, that transforms itself now into a theatre, now into a castle, now into a ship.
Even period costumes can be transformed and altered, in a dynamic that continues to make explicit the theatre within the theatre. Besides, if Stoppard, with his pièce, wants to reread Hamlet in a comic key, this staging also thrives on this metatheatrical suggestion.
A playful, dynamic show, with the flavour of street theatre, popular – in the most Shakespearean sense of the term – the expression of a layered theatre that can move and speak to everyone.

Directing notes

I always thought it was ingenious that Tom Stoppard had the idea of spying on Hamlet through the keyhole, of looking at it through the two clowns, the two guitti, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and turning the greatest tragedy of all time into a farce about human existence. I think that the text has been very successful over the years and is much loved for the freshness of its dialogue, the wit of its stage gimmicks, and its ability to take two secondary characters from Shakespeare’s work and make them the protagonists of an amusing and existential story.
With this production, I would like to present the Italian public with a new, amusing show that mixes English humour with the physical comedy of the Commedia dell’Arte. With a pair of great actors – Francesco Pannofino and Francesco Acquaroli – in the roles of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two perfect clowns/adventurers, capable of making these two extraordinary characters unforgettable once again. Next to them, in the role of the Capocomico, is Paolo Sassanelli, the ideal interpreter to lead the company of wandering comedians with irony, charisma and cheerfulness. The cast is also completed by Andrea Pannofino and Chiara Mascalzoni.

Alberto Rizzi