William Shakespeare's As You Like It opens thus: "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players."

With Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, playwright Tom Stoppard addresses this philosophy on a deeper level: If all the world is a stage, then what happens in the wings? Where do the extras and bit parts await their destiny?

Stoppard's work follows the liminal tribulations of its two title characters, minor foils in Hamlet, destined by the bard's script to appear, get monologued at, repeat, and ultimately die off stage.

Produced by newly formed company The Outfit at Lakewood Playhouse, the ability of the play's flood of existential crises to entertain rests squarely on the shoulders of its two leads. Bryan Bender's Guildenstern and Outfit president Christian Doyle's Rosencrantz do not disappoint.

Bender and Doyle share a rapid start and stop banter that draws not only on the innate chemistry of the actors, but on an intense familiarity with both characters. One gets the sense director Erin Chanfrau could spontaneously swap casting mid-run and the production would be none the worse for wear-a quality which plays perfectly into the confusion of identity scattered throughout the story.

The two leads are supported by a well-rounded cast, as the major characters of Hamlet are shuffled into background roles. Mark Peterson, just off his last Shakespearian turn as Othello in Olympia, brings a booming regal demeanor to Hamlet's uncle Claudius, and Jen Davis is appropriately silly as the love-mad Ophelia.

Standout among these "bit" parts is Alex Smith's Hamlet. Though played for comedy, his manic energy and crazed physical portrayal of the Dane - the same qualities Smith brought to last year's Lakewood production of The Mousetrap - would be right at home in a full production of Shakespeare's tragedy.

For those in need of a brush-up on, or introduction to the actual plot (unless you prefer to be as confused as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern at all the comings and goings), the show begins with a production of Fifteen Minute Hamlet, also by Stoppard.

Helpfully keeping the actors in their same roles, this short is comprised entirely of lines from Shakespeare's original text. For comedy it relies on physical gags, fortuitous cuts, timing, and a barrage of quiet music cues throughout.

Smith's flailing Hamlet shines here as well, spasming his way on and off the stage. All of the entrances and exits, in both shows (and oh, there are many) benefit from the decision to produce Rosencrantz in the round, with audience on all four sides and entrances in all four corners.

The set itself is a sparse rotating platform, decorated with a large compass rose, highlighting the continuous confusion of location - not to mention name, purpose and everything else - suffered by the two leads.

Every step Rosencrantz and Guildenstern take brings them closer to their inevitable and baffling end, while demonstrating the tenuous grip we all have on fate and predestination. Their struggle to grasp their place in the out of sight corners of an inexorably scripted universe is by equal turns heartbreaking, thought provoking and hilarious.

This is a difficult balance to strike, certainly, but the production team and cast of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead succeed admirably on all fronts, and the result is an excellent first foray into mainstage production for The Outfit.

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead

Through Aug. 15, 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday and Saturday, Aug. 7
Lakewood Playhouse, 5729 Lakewood Towne Center Blvd., Lakewood
253.588.0042