Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead is an exceptional play that echoes Shakespeare's revenge tragedy Hamlet, and yet remains unmistakably unique. The play's author, Tom Stoppard, manages to transform Hamlet using a number of different methods, some of which were inspired by a form of writing plays known as theatre of the absurd.

Absurdist theatre is a 20th century movement led by playwrights like Samuel Beckett, who wrote, "Waiting for Godot." Absurdist theatre rejects naturalism and attempts to imply "A sense of metaphysical anguish at the absurdity of the human condition" (Esslin). Ionesco defines the absurd as "That which is devoid of purpose. Cut off from religious, metaphysical and transcendental roots, man is lost: all his actions become senseless, absurd, useless."

Another feature of this type of drama is the breakdown of communication. Characters talk at cross purposes, repeating themselves or one another, or even unintelligibly. Examples of this...