STOPPARD'S BEST- KNOWN PLAY ~ SIGNED : IN EXCEPTIONAL CONDITION

Stoppard, Tom ~ Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead : Signed By The Author

Faber and Faber, London : 1967

The First UK Printing published by Faber and Faber, London : 1967. 8vo., plain card wraps with integral pink and blue wrapper (unclipped, '6s 6d net' to front flap), lettered in black to upper cover and spine, with the lower cover showing a list of other Faber plays by Beckett, Osborne, and others; The BOOK essentially a near Fine copy with just a little toning to the text block. The WRAPPER with some very minor rubbing to edges and just a touch of shelf darkening and toning to the lower cover. The book is protected in a removable Mylar archival sleeve. First UK edition, this copy signed (without dedication) by Stoppard in black ink to the title page. The wraps edition was issued simultaneously with the casebound issue (bound in blue cloth). First performed by the Oxford Theatre group at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1966, Stoppard’s absurdist tragicomedy is based upon two figures from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, friends of the protagonist who usually sit on the fringes of the story. The play’s earlier iteration, a one-act play entitled Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Meet King Lear, was written in 1964, and by 1967 it was being performed at the Old Vic with John Stride and Edward Petherbridge in the title roles. It was also the first of Stoppard’s plays to be performed on Broadway, and ran to 420 performances in total. In 1990, the film adaptation was released, with a star-studded cast including Gary Oldman as Rosencrantz, Tim Roth as Guildenstern, Richard Dreyfuss as the Player, Joanna Roth as Ophelia, Ian Richardson as Polonius, Joanna Miles as Gertrude, Donald Sumpter as Claudius, and Iain Glen as Hamlet. Stoppard wrote the screenplay, and later decided that he should try his hand at directing too. In an interview for the Los Angeles Times, he was reported as claiming “it might be a good idea if I did it myself-at least the director wouldn’t have to keep wondering what the author meant. It just seemed that I’d be the only person who could treat the play with the necessary disrespect.” Rosencrantz and Guildenstern has become one of Stoppard’s most popular and enduring works, acclaimed by many as a modern dramatic masterpiece, with parallels drawn with Beckett's infamous Waiting for Godot. Scarce indeed, particularly signed. (Warner A1 a).

BINDING: Softcover
CONDITION: Near Fine
JACKET: Near Fine