Daniel Radcliffe returns to the West End

After his run off Broadway in “Privacy” at the Public New York, Daniel will now appear at The Old Vic with Joshua McGuire in “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” the play that made a young Tom Stoppard’s name overnight, the play returns to The Old Vic in its 50th Anniversary Celebratory Production.
Against the backdrop of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, this mind-bending situation comedy sees two hapless minor characters, Rosencrantz (Daniel Radcliffe) and Guildenstern (Joshua McGuire), take centre stage. Increasingly out of their depth, the young double act stumble their way in and out of the action of this iconic drama. In a literary hall of mirrors, Stoppard’s brilliantly funny, existential labyrinth sees us witness the ultimate identity crisis.

 

Previews 25 Feb – 6 Mar 2017 Old Vic Theatre London

 

Daniel Radcliffe

Daniel  is an English actor best known for his role as Harry Potter in the film series of the same name. He made his acting debut at 10 years of age in BBC One’s 1999 television film David Copperfield, followed by his cinematic debut in 2001’s The Tailor of Panama. At age 11, he was cast as Harry Potter in the first Harry Potter film, and starred in the series for 10 years until the release of the eighth and final film in 2011.

Radcliffe began to branch out to stage acting in 2007, starring in the London and New York productions of Equus, and in the 2011 Broadway revival of the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. The Broadway/West End production of The Cripple of Inishmann and off Broadway 2016 in Privacy.

His recent films include the horror film The Woman in Black (2012), playing beat poet Allen Ginsberg in the independent film Kill Your Darlings (2013), science fiction fantasy Victor Frankenstein (2015) and comedy-drama Swiss Army Man, heist thriller film Now You See Me 2 and thriller Imperium (all 2016).
He has contributed to many charities, including Demelza Hospice Care for Children, and The Trevor Project for suicide prevention among LGBTQ youth, which gave him its Hero Award in 2011.
 

Joshua McGuire

 

Joshua McGuire is an English television, film and stage actor,
McGuire graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art with a BA(Hons) in Acting. Prior to graduation, he had been a member of Playbox Theatre Company, and was involved in minor radio dramas and Shakespearean productions.

While still a drama student, McGuire first came to attention for his role in the premiere of Laura Wade’s satirical play Posh in which he portrayed a student member of the “Riot Club”, a parody of the Bullingdon Club at Oxford University.
He has made cameo appearances in a number of BBC sitcoms and drama series and was a cast member in the 2011 BBC Two series The Hour. He also starred as assistant to Stephen Fry’s character in the comedy series The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff, a parody of Charles Dickens’ works.

In May 2016 McGuire is appearing the “comedy/drama series” as the role of Nunney in new BBC drama Love, Ninaalongside Faye Marsay and Helena Bonham Carter.
Of his performance as the critic John Ruskin in Mike Leigh’s film Mr. Turner, The Daily Telegraph said it was “hilariously played by Joshua McGuire.”

 

Year	Title	Theatre	Role
2001	King John	Royal Shakespeare Company	Arthur
2010	Posh	Royal Court Theatre	Guy Bellingfield
2010	Hay Fever	Rose Theatre, Kingston	Simon Bliss
2011	Hamlet	Shakespeare’s Globe	Hamlet
2012	Posh	Duke of York’s Theatre	Guy Bellingfield
2012-13	The Magistrate	National Theatre	Cis Farringdon
2014	Privacy	Donmar Warehouse	The Writer
2014	Amadeus	Chichester Festival Theatre	Mozart
2014	The Ruling Class	Trafalgar Studios	Dinsdale Gurney
2015	Future Conditional	The Old Vic	Oliver

 

The Play – Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, often referred to as just Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, is an absurdist, existentialist tragicomedy by Tom Stoppard, first staged at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1966.The play expands upon the exploits of two minor characters from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

The action of Stoppard’s play takes place mainly “in the wings” of Shakespeare’s, with brief appearances of major characters from Hamlet who enact fragments of the original’s scenes. Between these episodes the two protagonists voice their confusion at the progress of events occurring onstage without them in Hamlet, of which they have no direct knowledge.

Comparisons have also been drawn with Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot,for the presence of two central characters who almost appear to be two halves of a single character. Many plot features are similar as well: the characters pass time by playing Questions, impersonating other characters, and interrupting each other or remaining silent for long periods of time.

Tom Stoppard

Sir Tom Stoppard OM CBE FRSL (born 3 July 1937) is a British playwright and screenwriter, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. He co-wrote the screenplays for Brazil, The Russia House, and Shakespeare in Love, and has received one Academy Award and four Tony Awards. Themes of human rights, censorship and political freedom pervade his work along with exploration of linguistics and philosophy. Stoppard has been a key playwright of the National Theatre and is one of the most internationally performed dramatists of his generation.

Born in Czechoslovakia, Stoppard left as a child refugee, fleeing imminent Nazi occupation. He settled with his family in Britain after the war, in 1946, having spent the three years prior (1943–46) in a boarding school in Darjeeling in the Indian Himalayas. After being educated at schools in Nottingham and Yorkshire, Stoppard became a journalist, a drama critic and then, in 1960, a playwright. He has been married three times, to Josie Ingle (m. 1965), then Miriam Stoppard (m. 1972), and Sabrina Guinness (m. 2014).