Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

by Tom Stoppard

Translation:

Svetla Maneva

Translation of the verses from Hamlet:

Alexander Shurbanov

Director:

Boyan Kracholov

Set and Costume Design:

Boris Dalchev & Mihaela Dobreva

Composer:

Georgi Atanasov

Choreographer:

Rosen Mihaylov

Lighting Designer:

Mariana Khlebnikova

Dramaturg:

Mira Todorova

Cast:

Nencho Kostov, Plamen Dimov, Alexandra Vasileva, Alexander Kanev, Nadya Keranova, Radena Valkanova, Martin Dimitrov, Valentin Balabanov, Ivan Nikolov, Dimitar Krumov, Alexander Tonev, Asen Dankov, Stelian Radev, Yavor Valkanov, and Darina Radeva

Tom Stoppard (b.1937) is one of the most significant contemporary playwrights, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is the work that propelled him to international fame. Born in Czechoslovakia, Stoppard grew up in the United Kingdom and began his career as a journalist before dedicating himself to playwriting. His play debuted at the Edinburgh Festival in 1966 and quickly became a theatrical sensation, reaching the stages of the National Theatre in London and Broadway. The great actor Laurence Olivier, director of the National Theatre at the time, said this was the production he was most proud of during his tenure.

The play is an intellectual comedy that, through wordplay, jokes, absurd "scientific" speculations, and poetic digressions, explores themes of fate, chance, and free will. The story unfolds from the perspective of two secondary characters from Hamlet, lost in a plot whose rules they do not understand. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern desperately try to take control of their own life trajectories—testing probability theory in a game of coin flips, pondering the laws of nature, and "rationalizing" chaos through a series of absurd syllogisms and conclusions in search of any pattern or objective foundation upon which to build identity, direction, and meaning.

In their cowardice and detachment, as people upon whom nothing depends, they become willing accomplices to murder—only to ultimately find themselves destined to die as well.

Boyan Kracholov is one of the most intriguing contemporary theater directors. He won the ASKER Award (2017) in the "Rising Star" category for the production This Is NOT Hamlet and was nominated for the ASKER Award (2021) for Contemporary Bulgarian Playwriting for The Coin. In 2024, he won an IKAR Award for Directing for The Petrovs in and Around the Flu. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead marks his debut on the Grand Stage.

Second Assistant Directors:

Olga Nedyalkova, Elena Kostova

Poster Design:

Nikolay Dimitrov NAD

Photographer:

Stefan Zdraveski

Premiere: April 28, 29, and 30, 2025