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I read this many years back, in high school. I give great credit to that teacher (name sadly forgotten), though he also made us read The Crying of Lot 49. In any case, I was taken with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead within the very first scene - laughing out loud at the implausibility of it all, and the lead characters' unflappable response.

The play basically takes two minor characters in Hamlet, and follows them as they try to understand their role in the whole sorry mess. They speak in contemporary language, except when they're 'on stage' (in the scenes in Hamlet). The result is hilarious.

The play was made into a very good movie with Tim Roth and Gary Oldman. Not as good as readingthe play, but still well worth the time. I recommend the play/movie to anyone who enjoys philosophical comedy (why is that not a genre?) or comedic philosophy.

We were fortunate enough to produce this play in high school and I got to play Alfred! I was a huge tom boy with short hair and people often mistook me for a boy anyway This has always been one of my absolute favorites and Tim Roth did brilliantly as Guildernstern and Oldman did fantastic as well.

Tom Stoppard also wrote "Shakespeare in Love" which is one of my favorite movies as well

Cheers!