It’s definitely not hard to find a postmodern take on a Shakespearean work. But it’s hard to find one injected with as much wit and wisdom as Tom Stoppard’s classic, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Though Studio Theater director Kirk Jackson has assembled a pair of convivial leads, a standout supporting player and an inventive set, the star in their latest production is really the work itself.

Stoppard’s famous work focuses on two very minor characters in Hamlet, namely his two friends whom have been summoned to try to jolt Hamlet out of his depressed stupor. In Hamlet, they’re later dispatched to whisk Hamlet off to England, where Hamlet’s devious uncle plans to have him killed. In Rosencrantz and Gildenstern, however, the pair barely know why they’ve showed up on the scene (and at times can’t even differentiate between each other), giving the work the feel of a sort of partial-dream state.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern works best on two levels – when it gives us a sort of backstage pass to the events of Hamlet, and when the title characters take part in some very clever wordplay, always heavy on semantic nuances and verbal tricks. A classic moment is when they engage in a game of Questions, a kind of intellectual tennis game where the two go back and forth, trying to avoid making statements (it’s hilarious to hear the two call each other out on penalties such as “repetition” and “rhetoric,” enough to make you want to try to best your more articulate friends at a round yourself).

The oft-exasperated Raymond Bokhour and affable doofus Liam Craig as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have a sort of Laurel & Hardy dynamic going on (their bowler hats a clear homage), though at times one wishes for a little more chemistry from the two, whether it be frustration, affection, anything. Floyd King, however, is right at home in the role of a cynical, world-weary player (the one leading the troupes who will perform “The Murder of Gonzago” at Elsinore), always ready with a winking flourish. His group of willing players is given a goofy, bedraggled look by costume designer Alex Jaeger that becomes them, and the group proves adept at injecting moments of physical comedy and occasional acrobatics into the work.

Daniel Conway's set proves the perfect medium for the work -- it's series of swinging doors, popping windows and dropping trap doors that keep the action moving, and a beautiful blue sky provides a stark, transporting backdrop. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern proves to be a work that needs little adornment, though Studio's production sometimes leaves one wondering what another company might have done to lend a more signature stamp.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern runs through June 24 at Studio Theater. Tickets are available online.