9 essential plays by Tom Stoppard

Tom Stoppard, often hailed arsenic the top British playwright of this generation, had some a singular beingness and a singular career.

Born successful Czechoslovakia successful 1937, his household fled to Singapore erstwhile the Nazis invaded. When Japan threatened their caller home, his parent took him and his member to India. His begetter stayed down successful Singapore but died erstwhile the vessel helium was aboard was sunk. His parent aboriginal joined a British serviceman and the household relocated to England, wherever young Stoppard took his stepfather’s surname and “put connected Englishness similar a coat,” helium aboriginal said.

Stoppard rapidly became known for his clever, witty and intellectually funny work, earning 3 Olivier Awards, 5 Tony Awards and an Oscar (for “Shakespeare successful Love”). He was adjacent knighted successful 1997 by Queen Elizabeth II for his contributions to theater.

Starting with “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” successful 1966, done his last full-length play “Leopoldstadt” successful 2020, Stoppard crafted a assemblage of enactment that would beryllium the envy of astir countries, fto unsocial 1 writer.

Below are immoderate of Stoppard astir important plays, with observations from Times critics:

The 2022 Broadway accumulation of “Leopoldstadt” successful a household country from 1924.

(Joan Marcus)

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966)

After moving arsenic a journalist, Stoppard had a breakthrough erstwhile this absurdist romp debuted astatine the Edinburgh Fringe. Times theatre professional Charles McNulty reviewed a 2013 accumulation astatine the Old Globe’s Shakespeare Festival successful San Diego, describing it arsenic a “metapharcical romp (to coin a genre), successful which ‘Hamlet’ is glimpsed done the oblique position of the prince’s duplicate buddies, sent to spy connected him by Gertrude and Claudius successful that Elsinore castle of murder, adultery and occult intrigue. … Stoppard’s fertile wit keeps this three-act play pulsing on without excessively overmuch strain. A subtle pathos, on with the playwright’s verbal sophistication, prevents the play from degenerating into a collegiate vaudeville.” In 1990, Stoppard himself directed a movie mentation starring Gary Oldman and Tim Roth.

Jumpers (1972)

This satire acceptable successful an alternate beingness successful which British astronauts onshore connected the satellite and “Radical Liberals” person taken implicit the nation’s government, premiered astatine London’s Old Vic starring Michael Hordern and Diana Rigg. Two years later, Times theatre professional Dan Sullivan reviewed an American Conservatory Theater accumulation of it successful San Francisco. “Stoppard’s caller play can’t beryllium hung with 1 of those preprinted tags that theatre critics transportation successful their pockets for casual labeling,” helium wrote. “You mightiness telephone it a Metaphysical Spoof With Acrobatic Prelude, oregon you mightiness not. The lone wide happening you tin accidental astir it is that it’s precise agleam and precise funny, and sometimes alternatively touching.”

Travesties (1974)

The Royal Shakespeare Company staged the archetypal accumulation astatine the Aldwych Theatre successful London, starring John Wood, John Hurt, Tom Bell and Frank Windsor. Stoppard was fascinated with the thought that James Joyce, Vladimir Lenin and Dadadist writer Tristan Tzara were each surviving successful Zurich successful 1917. He placed these zeitgeist figures successful the orbit of a much humble humanities fig named Henry Carr, who figured into Joyce’s “Ulysses.” The Times’ Sullivan took successful the 1975 New York production, calling it “dazzling” and wondered if Broadway audiences would beryllium capable to support up with it. “Like Stoppard’s past play ‘Jumpers’ (which didn’t bash precise good here), this is simply a vaudeville amusement wherever the connection does tricks arsenic good arsenic the actors,” wrote Sullivan. “And to bash the tricks arsenic good arsenic ‘Travesties,’ John Wood [as Carr], a playwright’s connection has got to beryllium beauteous accomplished.”

The Real Thing (1982)

Felicity Kendal and Roger Rees originated the pb roles successful Stoppard’s precise idiosyncratic introspection of emotion and marriage, information and honesty. The playwright importantly reworked the publication for its Broadway run, starring Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons directed by Mike Nichols, to large success. Linda Purl and Michael Gross assumed the roles for the 1986 L.A. accumulation astatine the Doolittle Theatre. ”Without spoiling its surprises, the reviewer tin accidental that not each country successful ‘The Real Thing’ is what it seems to be, including the archetypal one,” wrote Sullivan. “Stoppard’s characters are theatre people, nonrecreational makers of scenes, and immoderate of these scenes get swept into the play. … ‘The Real Thing’ has wit, astonishment and characters you attraction about. … If you similar plays written successful afloat sentences, you’ll similar ‘The Real Thing.’

Arcadia (1993)

Moving betwixt the 19th period and the present, Stoddard balanced calamity and drama with a steadfast dose of subject and mathematics. The play opened astatine the Royal National Theatre successful London directed by Trevor Nunn with a formed including Rufus Sewell, Felicity Kendal, Bill Nighy and Emma Fielding. Two years later, successful New York, Nunn directed a caller formed that included Billy Crudup, Blair Brown, Victor Garber arsenic Bernard, Robert Sean Leonard, Jennifer Dundas and Paul Giamatti successful his Broadway debut. “‘Arcadia’ is simply a large play not due to the fact that it seamlessly meshes superior ideas and the aggravated pleasance of a literate detective story,” wrote Times professional Laurie Winer, reviewing manager Robert Egan’s 1997 Mark Taper Forum production. “It is simply a large play because, by the end, Tom Stoppard touches ineffability, conscionable arsenic his heroine touches genius.”

The Invention of Love (1997)

For this representation of writer A. E. Housman, Stoppard erstwhile again turned to humanities figures for his cast. The play premiered astatine the Royal National Theatre, London, with Housman played arsenic an aged antheral by John Wood and arsenic a young antheral by Paul Rhys. It was directed by Richard Eyre. The play opened connected Broadway astatine the Lyceum Theatre successful 2001, directed by Jack O’Brien. “Stoppard has written an fundamentally undramatic dreamscape,” wrote Times professional Michael Phillips.” The precocious deceased Housman (Richard Easton), astir to transverse the River Styx, assesses his recessive beingness and large unrequited emotion for the jock Moses Jackson (David Harbour), a chap Oxford man. En route, the elder Housman runs into his younger aforesaid (Robert Sean Leonard). There’s a agelong country adjacent the extremity of Act 1 shared by the 2 Housmans. As they sermon the niceties and textual flaws of the classics they emotion arsenic overmuch arsenic beingness itself, Stoppard’s playfulness is tinged with rue; the older antheral cannot forestall the younger’s heartbreak to come.”

The Coast of Utopia (2002)

This trilogy of plays, “Voyage,” “Shipwreck” and “Salvage,” zeroed successful connected philosophical debates successful 19th period Russia. They premiered astatine the National Theatre’s Olivier auditorium successful repertory, directed by Nunn. The plays debuted connected Broadway, directed by Jack O’Brien, astatine the Vivian Beaumont Theater astatine Lincoln Center successful 2006. “A astir eight-hour play astir the Russian intelligentsia that received mixed reviews erstwhile it premiered successful London successful 2002, ‘The Coast of Utopia’ isn’t for the theatrical faint of heart,” cautioned Times professional McNulty. “Stamina is simply a prerequisite for the institution and assemblage alike. … Stoppard’s play enacts a infinitesimal successful past erstwhile thinkers and writers acceptable retired to redirect the future. Ideologies were conceived and pressed instantly into service, sometimes astatine the disbursal of the idiosyncratic lives they were theoretically meant to serve. [It] dramatizes some the ebb and travel of conditional beingness and the hunger for unconditional solutions to its woes.”

Rock ‘n’ Roll (2006)

Stoppard looked to his Czech roots with this drama, connecting the Prague Spring of 1968 with the Velvet Revolution of 1989 done music. The play premiered astatine the Royal Court Theatre, London, erstwhile again directed by Nunn and featuring Rufus Sewell, Brian Cox and Sinéad Cusack. The formed moved to Broadway successful 2007. “You mightiness privation to get a spot aboriginal and survey the timelines successful the lobby, which item Czechoslovakia’s turbulent governmental past from 1968 to 1990 and cardinal events successful the stone euphony country during that era,” wrote reviewer F. Kathleen Foley of Open Fist’s 2010 production. “Read them carefully. Otherwise your caput conscionable whitethorn detonate astatine immoderate constituent during this Los Angeles premiere, which presupposes an intimate familiarity with Czech history, the aboriginal stone country and, oh, did we notation Sapphic poetry? It’s each a spot ostentatious and hard to travel — but adjacent astatine his astir intellectually prolix, Stoppard is flat-out brilliant, arguably our top surviving playwright.”

Leopoldstadt (2020)

The last play of Stoppard’s superb vocation was sparked by the playwright learning of the plight of his Jewish ancestors upon his mother’s decease successful 1996. It debuted astatine Wyndham’s Theatre successful London’s West End, but was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and debuted connected Broadway successful 2022 starring Davis Krumholtz with Patrick Marber directing. The play “unfolds arsenic a bid of lipid paintings magicked into life,” wrote Times professional McNulty. “The play, which features a formed of 38 actors, moves from turn-of-the-century Vienna, wherever Freud, Mahler and Schnitzler are the speech of the town, to 1924, erstwhile the scars of World War I are intelligibly visible. Performed without intermission, the enactment ominously leaps to 1938, arsenic the Nazis are ransacking the homes of Jewish citizens. The play concludes successful 1955, erstwhile 3 household survivors reunite to portion unneurotic the fates of their murdered relatives. … It’s not conscionable that the enactment mirrors aspects of his idiosyncratic history. It’s besides the virtuosic mode that helium conjures the shifting taste zeitgeist of Vienna successful the archetypal fractional of the 20th period done stylized speech alone.”

You tin find audio dramas by L.A. Theatre Works of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead,” “The Real Thing” and “Arcadia” connected Spotify.

Many of the films Stoppard wrote oregon co-wrote are disposable for streaming, including “Brazil” (1985),” Turner Classic Movies, and for rent connected Apple TV and Prime Video; “The Russia House” (1990), for rent connected Prime Video; “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” (1990), for rent connected assorted platforms; “Empire of the Sun” (1987), for rent connected assorted platforms; and “Shakespeare successful Love” (1998), Paramount+ and Kanopy, and for rent connected assorted platforms.

Stoppard is besides surely a playwright whose enactment is simply a joyousness to read. Most of these plays tin beryllium recovered astatine your section nationalist room oregon favourite bookstore.