Tom Stoppard's play "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" is the most famous modern example of a tour de force in which the action in "Hamlet" is viewed through the eyes of two of the bit players, Hamlet's college friends, who accompany him on his trip to England. We know "Hamlet" is about Hamlet. They think it's about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. There's an old joke about the actor who is hired to play the gravedigger in "…showed first 75 words of 627 total…

…showed last 75 words of 627 total…foreground and the Shakespeare background. The irony, then, is that the parts of Stoppard's film that work best are exactly the ones that have nothing to do with the original inspiration behind "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern." To examine this irony in another way, the movie "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern" is about a troupe of players who briefly visit a story about some bit players on the outskirts of a great tragedy. Talk about opening out of town.