The curtain opens on two Elizabethans spinning coins. We're not sure who they are, where they are or even when they are....but then again, neither are they! Stoppard's opening scene sets the tone of this extraordinary play. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead takes place in the 'wings' of Hamlet and finds comedy, poignancy, poetry (and a little philosophy!) in the situation of the doomed attendant lords.