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“Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two courtiers in Hamlet. They are bit-parts, really, essentially messengers who are also friends of Hamlet. They are sent away from the court for a while, they come back, have some exchanges with Hamlet. They are given a letter, and end up being killed. If Tom Stoppard hadn’t written a play about them, they would be a footnote in a list of Shakespeare’s minor characters. What Tom Stoppard does is switch it so that they are the main characters, but they have no backstory. They don’t really know who they are, or even which one is which. And they don’t even particularly care. The play is full of these little jokes.” Read more...
Sally O'Reilly, Novelist
