Taking a classic piece of literature and giving it fresh perspective through, not the hero’s eyes, but those of a bit player?

Sure, that Broadway darling “Wicked” — which cribs its tale from “The Wizard of Oz” and sees it through the Wicked Witch’s green tint — may be the hit du jour, but how easily we forget our roots. Critic and playwright Tom Stoppard did something far more perversely comic in the mid-1960s: He re-imagined “Hamlet” as an absurdist tale, an idolizing riff on “Waiting for Godot,” through the eyes of Hamlet’s ill-fated friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

What started as minor characters (they are summoned to Denmark to spy on their old college chum, Hamlet, only to be killed off in a rather devious way) were fleshed out as existential antiheroes, navigating in Stoppard’s skewed version of what “Hamlet” might have been between Shakespeare’s stanzas.

“They’re taking us for granted!” Rosencrantz cries, and, through Stoppard, he’s talking to Shakespeare’s invisible hand.

Wicked, indeed.

“Rosencrantz,” in all its silly existential glory and comic brilliance, is getting a fine production in Phoenix throughout August at The Space, thanks to fledgling theater company Theatrescape. Director Tim Butterfield has stripped the show of any scenic details — everything takes place against black walls — and done what he could to streamline Stoppard’s script into a more-focused three acts. Longtime fans of “Rosencrantz” won’t be wowed by anything new here — Stoppard’s dense script doesn’t give much wiggle room — but they will find some able performers giving their tempered but silly all.

Pinch-faced and thoughtful as Guildenstern, Bruce Laks plays the blowhard, pontificating straightman of the duo, while Cale Epps does something odd and wholly interesting: Fresh from reprising his tragic character in the grisly “Cardenio” for Shakespeare Sedona, here he’s essentially playing Jack Black — the pudgy comic actor — playing Rosencrantz.

Enlightenment for poor, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern comes in the form of an acting troupe, the one that is enlisted by Hamlet to play for his evil stepfather, the usurping king. Its leader, the Player, is given life wonderfully by Jennifer Anne Sundberg, a Valley acting newcomer. Through Sundberg’s energetic and articulated performance, the Player is given the most brains of any and all in our tale, and as much omniscience as Shakespeare himself — or at least Stoppard allows her to drip the most hints of R&G’s fate.

Just as it helps to know “The Wizard of Oz” before seeing “Wicked,” it would be wise to brush up on your “Hamlet” before venturing out to catch “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.” But the darkest comedy comes in knowing only one thing — that our antiheroes are doomed.

“Keep an eye open, an ear cocked,” Guildenstern says to Rosencrantz. “Tread warily, follow instructions. We’ll be all right.”

We know they won’t. And all we can do is laugh. It’s just so ... so wicked.