Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead

The play concerns the misadventures of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two minor characters from William Shakespeare's Hamlet who are friends of the Prince, focusing on their actions while the events of Hamlet occur as background.. The two characters appear on stage in this play while they are off-stage in Shakespeare's play, with the exception of a few short scenes in which the dramatic events of both plays coincide. Hamlet, however, mocks them derisively and outwits them, so that they, rather than he, are killed in the end. Thus, from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's perspective, the action in Hamlet is largely nonsensical.