If you're familiar with "Hamlet," then you know that everyone is dead in the end, including doomed courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. So in Tom Stoppard's play, "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead," that riffs on Shakespeare's masterpiece, one thing's for sure—the blokes are gonna croak.

Salve Regina University's Department of Performing Arts presents the play as their season opener Nov. 4 through Nov. 7 in the recently renovated Casino Theatre in Newport. But in the university's production, are the protagonists already dead when the show opens? Visiting director Patrick Grimes took a fascinating approach with the existentialist tragicomedy told from the viewpoint of Hamlet's childhood buddies who are ordered to spy on the Prince of Denmark.

"My particular take on the show is that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are 'Schrödinger's Cat,'" said Grimes in reference to physicist Erwin Schrödinger's thought experiment involving a cat in a box that's dead or alive depending on a previous event.

"The idea is that they're already dead," he said. "You're coming to 'Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead'…and like Schrödinger's Cat, they're stuck inside a box…the question becomes are they alive or are they dead? No one knows. But we get the opportunity to observe them in their both alive and dead state, stuck in this netherworld until they make the decision that, yes, they are in fact dead."

In the absurdist play, the story of "Hamlet" is seen through the eyes of best friends Rosencrantz (Nicole Dionne, a junior) and the verbose Guildenstern (Jared Emanuel, a sophomore) who try to make sense of their situation through their philosophical ramblings. In between, chunks taken directly from "Hamlet" show the fools' interaction with Hamlet, Polonius, Ophelia, Gertrude and Tragedians, the traveling actors who perform the pivotal play-within-a-play in the original classic.

The 14-member cast performs the play on a raked stage with forced perspective, a tilted stage that allows the audience to clearly see players positioned upstage. "…To make you feel like you're inside the box," said Grimes, artistic director of the Marley Bridges Theatre Company in Newport. "You're really thrust and brought into the scene. My philosophy on theater is that theater is meant to be experienced, not witnessed…when you go to a play, you should feel a part of it."

"Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead," is the first in Salve Regina University's "The Bard of Bellevue" season featuring plays by or inspired by Shakespeare. Director Suzanne Delle's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," set in a circus will open at the Casino Theatre on Dec. 2.

Performances are located at Stanford White Casino Theatre at 9 Freebody St., behind the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport.

Regular performances are Fri., Nov. 5, and Sat., Nov. 6, at 8 p.m. and Sun., Nov. 7, at 3 p.m. Tickets $15; $10 Salve Regina faculty/staff and military, seniors; $7 students. For tickets, call (401) 341-2250 or (866) 811-4111 or purchase online through Salve Regina University.