In the Off-Stage World

Abstract

The response to the London opening of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (in a new, longer version) at the Old Vic in April 1967 showed that the acclaim which had greeted its appearance at Edinburgh’s Cranston Street Hall the previous August was no fluke, that it did, indeed, break new ground in the British theatre. Harold Hobson described the opening as ‘the most important event in the British professional theatre in the last nine years’.1 Ronald Bryden reasserted his view of the play as ‘the most brilliant dramatic debut of the ’Sixties’2 and Irving Wardle saluted its originality by declaring, ‘I know of no theatrical precedent for it’.3 Derek Goldby’s production, with John Stride and Edward Petherbridge (respectively) in the title roles, continued in repertoire for an unprecedented three-and-a-half years. Stoppard was voted Most Promising Playwright in the 1967 Evening Standard theatre awards, won the John Whiting Award and took, on the play’s Broadway opening, the 1968 ‘Tony’ and Drama Critics’ Circle Best Play awards — a remarkable set of accolades for any author’s first professional stage play.