Rosencrantz and Guildernstern are dead Notes
Rosencrantz repeatedly flips a coin and Guildenstern worries about the probability of this.
They then trick the players into performing for them by using the coin, but Rosencrantz then
explains that the most recent flip of the coin was actually tails, after hundreds of flips landing
on heads.
Scene changes and they are in Elsinore. We see a man and a woman running away, whilst
they are covered in curtains and cannot see. It appears to be Hamlet and Ophelia. R+G meet
Claudius and Gertrude, who begin to explain the situation in Denmark with Hamlet and greet
them. Claudius mistakes Rosencrantz for Guildenstern, a moment that after this play we often
see in modern adaptations of Hamlet.
R+G walk into a room and discover Polonius and Claudius discussing the cause of Hamlet’s
madness.
They then decide that the best way to uncover the cause of Hamlet’s madness is to ask him
questions to reveal the state of his mind. After finding a games room, they play with several
things they find in a chest and then play a game of words.
We see Polonius, Gertrude and Claudius walking through a corridor discussing Hamlet’s
mental state. R+G watch Polonius and Hamlet talking. R+G decide that to work out why
Hamlet has gone mad, Rosencrantz would ask Guildenstern questions, like in the game they
played earlier, whilst Guildenstern pretends to be Hamlet.
Hamlet talks to R+G. He soon realises that they were sent for. They sit at either end of a
table, whilst Hamlet sits in the middle and then climbs onto the table.
R+G witness Hamlet and Polonius watching the players, but then R finds a floorboard and
then the two fall down a chute into a floor where Hamlet discovers them.
R+G talk to one of the players. They watch the play.
R+G discuss death, and Rosencrantz explains that it would be better to be alive and in a box
than dead and in a box as at least you’re alive. He also talks about how when people think
about death, they always forget about the actually being dead part and think of it as if they
were alive. Guildenstern then says he’ll kill him.
We see Hamlet and Ophelia in the ‘get thee to a nunnery’ speech, and Rosencrantz’s paper
airplane flies through the scene.
R+G watch the scene of the play that Hamlet has devised, but then Ophelia and Hamlet burst
through, with Claudius and Polonius following behind.
R+G hear Hamlet talking to his mother in the ‘closet scene’, and then are standing behind the
curtain and see Polonius’ dead body.
R+G are on a boat to England, and Guildenstern kills the player on the boat, but he isn’t
actually dead he just acts. We see Ophelia drowned in a river, Hamlet talk to Yorick’s skull,
and the duel in a quick cut scene where we also see the death of Claudius and Gertrude and
Rosencrantz repeatedly flips a coin and Guildenstern worries about the probability of this.
They then trick the players into performing for them by using the coin, but Rosencrantz then
explains that the most recent flip of the coin was actually tails, after hundreds of flips landing
on heads.
Scene changes and they are in Elsinore. We see a man and a woman running away, whilst
they are covered in curtains and cannot see. It appears to be Hamlet and Ophelia. R+G meet
Claudius and Gertrude, who begin to explain the situation in Denmark with Hamlet and greet
them. Claudius mistakes Rosencrantz for Guildenstern, a moment that after this play we often
see in modern adaptations of Hamlet.
R+G walk into a room and discover Polonius and Claudius discussing the cause of Hamlet’s
madness.
They then decide that the best way to uncover the cause of Hamlet’s madness is to ask him
questions to reveal the state of his mind. After finding a games room, they play with several
things they find in a chest and then play a game of words.
We see Polonius, Gertrude and Claudius walking through a corridor discussing Hamlet’s
mental state. R+G watch Polonius and Hamlet talking. R+G decide that to work out why
Hamlet has gone mad, Rosencrantz would ask Guildenstern questions, like in the game they
played earlier, whilst Guildenstern pretends to be Hamlet.
Hamlet talks to R+G. He soon realises that they were sent for. They sit at either end of a
table, whilst Hamlet sits in the middle and then climbs onto the table.
R+G witness Hamlet and Polonius watching the players, but then R finds a floorboard and
then the two fall down a chute into a floor where Hamlet discovers them.
R+G talk to one of the players. They watch the play.
R+G discuss death, and Rosencrantz explains that it would be better to be alive and in a box
than dead and in a box as at least you’re alive. He also talks about how when people think
about death, they always forget about the actually being dead part and think of it as if they
were alive. Guildenstern then says he’ll kill him.
We see Hamlet and Ophelia in the ‘get thee to a nunnery’ speech, and Rosencrantz’s paper
airplane flies through the scene.
R+G watch the scene of the play that Hamlet has devised, but then Ophelia and Hamlet burst
through, with Claudius and Polonius following behind.
R+G hear Hamlet talking to his mother in the ‘closet scene’, and then are standing behind the
curtain and see Polonius’ dead body.
R+G are on a boat to England, and Guildenstern kills the player on the boat, but he isn’t
actually dead he just acts. We see Ophelia drowned in a river, Hamlet talk to Yorick’s skull,
and the duel in a quick cut scene where we also see the death of Claudius and Gertrude and
