Lend Me A Theater announces their fall production Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard at the Hatbox Theater in Concord, running Nov. 4 through Nov. 20.
Acclaimed as a modern absurdist masterpiece, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is the fabulously inventive tale of Hamlet as told from the worm’s-eye view of the bewildered Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two minor characters in Shakespeare’s play.
In Tom Stoppard’s best-known work, this Shakespearean Laurel and Hardy duo finally get a chance to take the lead role, but do so in a world where echoes of Waiting for Godot resound; where reality and illusion intermix. They stumble around unaware of their scripted lives and, unable to deviate from them, fate leads our two heroes to a tragic but inevitable end.
“I’m a bit of a purist when it comes to Shakespeare” says director Mo Demers, a founder and current treasurer of Lend Me A Theater. “I don’t want to see A Midsummers Night’s Dream set on the Starship Enterprise holodeck. Or Macbeth circa WWII. But this? This isn’t a conceptualized version of the bard’s original words. Stoppard has envisioned the classic story as seen from the sidelines. He hasn’t changed the original. Instead, Hamlet is the catalyst that gave rise to this masterpiece.”
Lend Me A Theater’s production stars local artists Sean Damboise of Manchester and Zakaria Tber of Nashua in the title roles, supported by a talented cast of veterans of NH community theater.
Lend Me A Theater is a non-profit charitable theater arts organization that has been performing all over southern New Hampshire since it was founded in 2015, coincidentally the same year the Hatbox opened.
Hatbox Theatre is located at the Steeplegate Mall, 270 Loudon Road. Shows are Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m. Visit hatboxnh.com.