The DGP are proud to present our new show at the Lantern Theatre!

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
12th-21st May 2011
Time: 7:30pm
Cost: £7.00
Box Office Telephone: 07931975149
Book Online: CLICK HERE (http://www.tickets.lanterntheatre.org.uk/shows/show_menu.php)
Website: www.lanterntheatre.org.uk

From the Oscar winning Tom Stoppard, who gave us Shakespeare in Love, this wickedly funny companion piece to Hamlet turns Shakespeare inside out and shows us the story of Hamlet from the point of view of the Dane's school chums, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Tom Stoppard serves up a rich inventive feast of wordplay, wit, and slapstick whilst exploring the timeless questions about identity, illusion, and toenail growing. Vaguely conscious that they are bit parts in a much bigger story of which they have no direct knowledge, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hilariously and movingly inhabit a world completely beyond their grasp.

An instant modern classic, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead won the 1968 Tony Award for Best Play, has appeared on stages all over the world, and is a major motion picture. Stoppard’s script is ablaze with word play yet he also explores the potential tragedy at the root of all our lives, intertwined with both joyous and poignant comedy. It has been consistently voted one of the best British comedies of all time.

The DGP's production is brought to you by the same team who produced last October's much praised Much Ado About Nothing. Directed by Martin Derbyshire it stars Johnathon Syer (Dogberry - Much Ado About Nothing) as Rosencrantz and Rob Myles (Clem - Improbable Fiction) as Guildenstern.

Tickets are now selling quickly so book early!

Starts this Thursday! Tickets are moving fast - 50% gone already. First night almost sold out!

Read The Star's terrific review of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead:

"...staggeringly poignant"
Steven Grigg, Sheffield Star

TOM Stoppard has cleverly taken some minor characters from Shakespeares’s tragedy, Hamlet, and made them central to the play, writes Stephen Grigg.

They appear to be stuck in some alternate universe unsure between what is real and fictional. This is first illustrated in the opening sequence as Guildenstern, played by Rob Myles, dressed in a green tunic, flips a coin continuously with a backdrop of Elsinore. Although it lands eighty-five times in a row on heads, Rosencrantz, played by Johnny Syer in the red tunic seems unimpressed.

Occasionally they feel compelled to utter lines from Hamlet when meeting the Prince of Denmark himself or his evil Uncle Claudius. At others they are at a loose end and play clever word games such as rhetoric, statement or question, a variation on “just a minute”.

David Reid puts in a good performance as The Player. His initial meeting with the two leads is hilarious as he uses his troupe of actors as pornography for sale in order to get an audience for his play. The only dame is Alfred, a six-foot, bearded chap wearing make-up, played by TJ Browne who sent much of the juvenile audience into hysteria.

All of the characters from Hamlet, such as Claudius and Gertrude, are here in wonderful costumes but they take a back seat to the terrific bewildered leads, Syer and Myles.

Director Martin Derbyshire gives us a staggeringly poignant ending given all the japes and jesting that precede it. It’s still a shock when we know its coming from the start.

Stephen Grigg, Sheffield Star (Published on Saturday 14 May 2011)
Click Here for the link to The Star's website review... (http://www.thestar.co.uk/lifestyle/theatre/review_rosencrantz_and_guildenstern_are_dead_lante rn_theatre_1_3379644)


Tickets are flying out of the door! Book now to see this stunning show!

Click here (http://www.tickets.lanterntheatre.org.uk/shows/show_menu.php) to book online or call the Box Office on 07931975149

DIGYORKSHIRE award Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead 4 Stars!

Link to the DIGYORKSHIRE REVIEW HERE (http://www.digyorkshire.com/HighlightDetails.aspx?Article=1254&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1)

‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead’, a small and insignificant line in the last scene of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in which the unmemorable courtiers are condemned to a funereal footnote while the main characters lie slaughtered on stage. For Tom Stoppard however, this line is the starting point for a whip smart drama that takes place in the wings of Hamlet. We follow Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in their existential musings between being compelled to action by Shakespeare’s stage directions only now and then dropping in on the famous play. It’s a deceptively clever text which touches on probability, metaphysics and Newton all under the cloak of broad comedy. To their credit the lead actors never let the lines stray too far into either slapstick or lecturing. Less subtle performances could turn the lithe wit of the writing into something rather more tedious.

Along with Johnny Syer’s touchingly naïve Rosencrantz and Rob Myles’ grumpy pendent of a Guildenstern, David Reid as The Player gives a delightful performance. As a cynical old luvvie , his flamboyant presence plays with the audience understanding of truth and reality throughout the evening. Stepping beyond Hamlet’s ‘play within a play’ Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is a Russian doll of metatheatre. We watch one play, played in parallel with another play, the action of which is restaged by a group of wandering players, until we are forced to assume that ‘all the world’s a stage’ and each of us are ensconced in our own dumb show. With no slight to the impressively capable Dilys Guite Players, somehow the fact that this was an amateur production with all the slightly wobbly sets and repurposed costumes that implies only added to this hall of mirrors.

If all this talk of metatheatre and physics sounds too theoretical then it’s worth saying that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is also a very funny play and the Dilys Guite Players exploit this winningly. The two main characters spar off each other like an Elizabethan two stooges while the louche antics of the wandering players are deliciously silly. Special mention must go to TJ Browne as Alfred, the much put-upon bearded lady of the troupe, constantly humiliated by the pimpish Player. Given all this clowning around its impressive that the director Martin Derbyshire manages to pull off a surprisingly moving ending. As the curtain falls you’re left in no doubt that although they are dead, Stoppard has breathed new life into the Tweedledum and Tweedledee of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Sarah Cockburn - DIGYORKSHIRE
Monday 16 May 2011

TICKETS ARE SELLING FAST AND THE REMAINING SHOWS ARE FILLING UP:
Tuesday 70% Full
Wednesday 80% Full
Thursday 65% Full
Friday 85% Full
Saturday 65% Full

BOOK NOW ONLINE (http://WWW.LANTERNTHEATRE.ORG.UK) OR ON 07931975149

AN UPDATE ON TICKET NUMBERS:
Wednesday 90% Full
Thursday 85% Full
Friday 90% Full
Saturday 75% Full

THIS IS OFFICIALLY THE FASTEST SELLING SHOW WE'VE HAD - BE QUICK!

AN UPDATE ON TICKET NUMBERS AS OF FRIDAY 8:30am:

Wednesday SOLD OUT!
Thursday SOLD OUT!
Friday 99% FULL (1 TICKET LEFT)
Saturday 90% Full (10 TICKETS LEFT)

THIS IS AN EXTREMELY HIGH QUALITY SHOW - THE AUDIENCES HAVE BEEN RAVING ABOUT IT. DON'T MISS OUT!

I would like to thank via the forum the whole Lantern production team for another superb performance.

Thank you Thorpist that's very much appreciated, I'm glad you enjoyed it. :wave: It was great fun to do and everyone worked really hard on it and we were thrilled with the audience response. Totally Sold Out performances!

The Lantern Theatre is fast gaining a great reputation to see brilliant theatre and we still have some great shows still to come this season...check out "Madam Galina - My Tutu's Gone AWOL" and "The Last Man On Earth" this month...