"Between 'just deserts' and 'tragic irony' we are given quite a lot of scope for our particular talent. Generally speaking, things have gone about as far as they possibly can when things have got about as bad as they reasonably get."

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead is a play which, as it were, takes place in the wings of hamlet, and finds both humour and poignancy in the situation of the ill-fated attendant lords. The National theatre production in July 1967 made Stoppard's reputation virtually overnight.

Its wit, stagecraft and verbal verve remain as exhilarating as they were then and the play has become a contemporary classic.