Martin, FionaSchott, Gareth R.Moffat, Kirstine2016-02-2520112016-02-252011Martin, F. (2011). ‘I demand an undying devotion to the play’: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead. In G. Schott & K. Moffat (Eds.), Fanpires: Audience Consumption of the Modern Vampire (pp. 275–289). Washington DC, United States: New Academia Publishing.978-0-9845832-1-8https://hdl.handle.net/10289/9965Since the first production of Shakespeare's Hamlet at the tum of the seventeenth century, the play has attracted performers, fascinated audiences, and stimulated scholarly discussion and debate - a form of immortality which has been further perpetuated from the twentieth century onward by film versions of the play.¹ The attitudes of literary critics and theater reviewers toward Shakespeare productions, however, remain widely divergent. Ann Thompson and Neil Taylor, for example, observe, "In the last fifty years, the play' s iconic status has led to countless attempts to adapt, rethink, debunk and vandalize it."² The judgment implied by the word "vandalize" suggests the continuing divide between "high" and "popular" cultures, and draws attention to the issues potentially arising when a canonical text is appropriated and newly interpreted.³17application/pdfen© 2011 Gareth Schott and Kirstine Moffat. Used with permission.Chapter in Book