Tom Stoppard

Personal

Born Tomas Straussler, July 3, 1937, in Zlin, Czechoslovakia; naturalized British citizen; son of Eugene Straussler (a physician) and Martha Stoppard; married Jose Ingle, 1965 (divorced, 1972); married Miriam Moore-Robinson (a physician), 1972 (separated); children: (first marriage) Oliver, Barnaby; (second marriage) Ed, one other son. Education: Educated in England and Continental Europe.

Addresses

Home—Chelsea Harbor, London, England. Agent—Peters, Fraser & Dunlop, The Chambers, 5th Floor, Chelsea Harbor, Lots Road, London SW10 0XF, England.

Career

Playwright, novelist, and radio and television script writer. Western Daily Press, Bristol, England, reporter and critic, 1954-58; Evening World, Bristol, reporter, 1958-60; freelance reporter, 1960-63. Director of play Born Yesterday, London, England, 1973; director of film for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, 1991. Member of Royal National Theatre Board, 1989—.

Member

Royal Society of Literature (fellow).

Awards, Honors

Ford Foundation grant to Berlin, 1964; John Whiting Award, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1967; London Evening Standard Drama Awards, 1967, for most promising playwright, 1972, for best play Jumpers, 1974, for best comedy Travesties, 1978, for Night and Day, and 1983, for best play The Real Thing; Plays and Players Awards for best new play, 1967, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and 1972, for Jumpers; Prix Italia, 1968, for Albert's Bridge; Antoinette Perry ("Tony") Awards for best play, 1968, for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, 1976, for Travesties, and 1984, for The Real Thing; New York Drama Critics Circle Awards, 1968, for best play, for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, 1976, for best play, for Travesties, and 1984, for best foreign play, for The Real Thing; Commander, Order of the British Empire, 1978; Shakespeare Prize (Hamburg, Germany), 1979; Academy Award nomination, and Los Angeles Critics Circle Award for best original screenplay (with Terry Gilliam and Charles McKeown), both 1985, both for Brazil; Golden Lion, Venice Film Festival, and Directors' Week award, Fantasporto, both 1990, both for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Tony Award nomination for best play, 1995, for Arcadia; Academy Award, Golden Globe award, Chicago Film Critics Association award, Broadcast Film Critics Association award, London Evening Standard British Film award, Florida Film Critics Circle award, New York Film Critics Circle award, Southeastern Film Critics Association award, Writers Guild of America award, and Las Vegas Film Critics Society award (all with Marc Norman), all 1998, all for best original screenplay, for Shakespeare in Love; Silver Berlin Bear for outstanding single achievement, Berlin International Film Festival, 1998, for Shakespeare in Love; knighted, 1997; Order of Merit, 2000; inducted into Theater Hall of Fame, 2000. Honorary degrees include M.Lit. from University of Bristol, 1976, Brunel University, 1979, and University of Sussex, 1980, and degrees from University of London, 1982, Kenyon College, 1984, and University of York, 1984.

Writings

plays

The Gamblers, produced in Bristol, England, 1965.

Tango (based on the play by Slawomir Mrozek; produced in London, England, 1966; produced on the West End, 1968), J. Cape (London, England), 1968.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (three-act; also see below; first produced at Edinburgh Festival, 1966; produced on the West End, 1967; produced on Broadway, 1967), Grove (New York, NY), 1967.

Enter a Free Man (based on his teleplay A Walk on the Water; also see below; first produced on the West End, 1968; produced Off-Broadway, 1974), Faber (Boston, MA), 1968.

The Real Inspector Hound (one-act; first produced on the West End, 1968; produced Off-Broadway with After Magritte, 1972), Faber (London, England), 1968, Grove (New York, NY), 1969.

Albert's Bridge [and] If You're Glad I'll Be Frank (based on his radio plays; also see below; produced in Edinburgh, Scotland, 1969, produced in New York, NY, 1987), Faber (London, England), 1969.

Albert's Bridge, French (New York, NY), 1969.

After Magritte (one-act; first produced in London, England, 1970; produced Off-Broadway with The Real Inspector Hound, 1972), Faber (London, England), 1971, Grove (New York, NY), 1972.

Dogg's Our Pet (also see below; produced in London, England, 1971), published in Six of the Best, Inter-Action Imprint, 1976.

Jumpers (first produced on the West End, 1972; produced in Washington, DC, 1974; produced on Broadway, 1974, 2004), Grove (New York, NY), 1972, revised edition, Faber (Boston, MA), 1986.

Artist Descending a Staircase [and] Where Are They Now?, Faber (London, England), 1973.

The House of Bernarda Alba (based on the play by Federico García Lorca), produced in London, England, 1973.

Travesties (produced on the West End, 1974; produced on Broadway, 1974), Grove (New York, NY), 1975.

The Fifteen-Minute Hamlet, French (New York, NY), 1976.

Dirty Linen and New-Found-Land (produced in London, England, 1976; produced on Broadway, 1977), Grove (New York, NY), 1976.

Every Good Boy Deserves Favor (first produced in London, England, 1977, produced on the West End, 1978, produced at the Metropolitan Opera House, 1979), music by Andre Previn, Edition Wilhelm Hansen (New York, NY), 1982.

Night and Day (produced on the West End, 1978; produced on Broadway, 1979), Faber (Boston, MA), 1978, revised edition, French (New York, NY), 1980.

Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth (one-act plays; Dogg's Hamlet based on his play Dogg's Our Pet; produced in New York, 1979), Inter-Action Inprint (London, England), 1979, Faber (Boston, MA), 1980.

Undiscovered Country (adapted from Arthur Schnitzler's Das Weite Land; produced on the West End, 1979; produced in Hartford, CT, 1981), Faber (Boston, MA), 1980.

On the Razzle (adapted from Johann Nestroy's Einen Jux will er sich machen; produced on the West End, 1981; produced in Los Angeles, CA, 1985), Faber (Boston, MA), 1981.

The Real Thing (produced on the West End, 1982; produced on Broadway, 1984, 2000), Faber (London, England), 1982, revised edition, Faber (Boston, MA), 1983.

Rough Crossing (adaptation of Ferenc Molnár's The Play's the Thing; produced in London, England, 1984; produced in New York, NY, 1990), Faber (Boston, MA), 1985.

Dalliance (adapted from Arthur Schnitzler's Liebelei), produced in London, England, 1986.

(Translator) Vaclav Havel, Largo Desolato, Faber (Boston, MA), 1987.

Hapgood (produced in London, England, then New York, NY, 1988), Faber (Boston, MA), 1988.

Artist Descending a Staircase (based on his radio play [also see below]; produced on the West End, 1988; produced on Broadway, 1989), Faber (Boston, MA), 1988.

(With Clive Exton) The Boundary, French (New York, NY), 1991.

Arcadia (produced in London, England, 1994; produced on Broadway, 1995), Faber (Boston, MA), 1993.

The Invention of Love (produced on Broadway, 2001), Grove (New York, NY), 1998.

Doing It: Five Performing Arts, edited by Robert B. Silvers, New York Review of Books (New York, NY), 2001.

(Translator) Anton Chekhov, The Seagull, Faber (New York, NY), 2001.

The Coast of Utopia, (trilogy of plays; contains Voyage, Shipwreck, and Salvage), produced in London, England, 2002), published individually, Grove (New York, NY), 2003.

Also author of Home and Dry and Riley.

screenplays

(With Thomas Wiseman) The Romantic English-woman, New World Pictures, 1975.

Despair (adapted from the novel by Vladimir Nabokov), New Line Cinema, 1978.

The Human Factor (adapted from the novel by Graham Greene), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), 1980.

(With Terry Gilliam and Charles McKeown) Brazil, Universal, 1985.

Empire of the Sun (adapted from the novel by J. G. Ballard), Warner Brothers, 1987.

The Russia House (adapted from the novel by John le Carré), MGM/United Artists, 1989.

(And director) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (adapted from his play), Cinecom, 1991, published as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead: The Film, Faber (Boston, MA), 1991.

Billy Bathgate (adapted from the novel by E. L. Doctorow), Touchstone, 1991.

(With Marc Norman) Shakespeare in Love (Miramax, 1998), Hyperion (New York, NY), 1998.

(Adaptor in English) Vatel, 2000.

Enigma (adapted from the novel by Robert Harris), Manhattan Pictures, 2001.

for television

A Walk on the Water, ITV Television, 1963, broadcast as The Preservation of George Riley, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC-TV), 1964.

A Separate Peace (based on the novel by John Knowles; BBC-TV, 1966), Samuel French (London, England), 1977.

Teeth, BBC-TV, 1967.

Another Moon Called Earth, BBC-TV, 1967.

Neutral Ground, Thames Television, 1968.

The Engagement (based on his radio play The Dissolution of Dominic Boot; also see below), NBC-TV, 1970.

One Pair of Eyes, BBC-TV, 1972.

(With Clive Exton) Eleventh House, BBC-TV, 1975.

(With Clive Exton) Boundaries, BBC-TV, 1975.

Three Men in a Boat (based on the novel by Jerome K. Jerome), BBC-TV, 1975.

Professional Foul, BBC-TV, 1977, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS-TV), 1978.

Squaring the Circle: Poland, 1980-81 (BBC-TV, 1985), Faber (Boston, MA), 1985.

for radio

The Dissolution of Dominic Boot, BBC, 1964.

"M" Is for Moon among Other Things, BBC, 1964.

If You're Glad I'll Be Frank (BBC, 1966), Faber (London, England), 1969, revised edition, Samuel French (New York, NY), 1978.

Albert's Bridge, BBC, 1967.

Where Are They Now?, BBC, 1970.

Artist Descending a Staircase, BBC, 1972.

The Dog It Was That Died, BBC, 1982.

In the Native State (BBC, 1991), Faber (Boston, MA), 1991, revised edition published as Indian Ink, Faber (Boston, MA), 1995.

Also author of episodes of radio serials The Dales, 1964, and A Student's Diary, 1965.

omnibus volumes

The Real Inspector Hound [and] After Magritte, Grove (New York, NY), 1970.

Artist Descending a Staircase and Where Are They Now?: Two Plays for Radio, Faber (London, England), 1973.

Albert's Bridge and Other Plays (contains Albert's Bridge, If You're Glad I'll Be Frank, Artist Descending a Staircase, Where Are They Now?, and A Separate Peace), Grove (New York, NY), 1977.

Every Good Boy Deserves Favor [and] Professional Foul, Grove (New York, NY), 1978.

The Dog It Was That Died, and Other Plays (contains Teeth, Another Moon Called Earth, Neutral Ground, A Separate Peace, "M" Is for Moon among Other Things, and The Dissolution of Dominic Boot), Faber (Boston, MA), 1983.

Four Plays for Radio, Faber (Boston, MA), 1984.

Squaring the Circle; Every Good Boy Deserves Favor; Professional Foul, Faber (Boston, MA), 1984.

Dalliance [and] Undiscovered Country, Faber (Boston, MA), 1986.

Stoppard: The Radio Plays, 1964-1983, Faber (Boston, MA), 1991.

Rough Crossing [and] On the Razzle, Faber (Boston, MA), 1991.

The Television Plays, 1965-1984, Faber (Boston, MA), 1993.

The Real Inspector Hound and Other Entertainments, Faber (Boston, MA), 1993, published as The Real Inspector Hound and Other Plays, Grove (New York, NY), 1996.

Tom Stoppard Plays (multivolume series), Faber (London, England), 1996—.

other

Lord Malquist and Mr. Moon (novel), Anthony Blond (London, England), 1966, Knopf (New York, NY), 1968.

(With Paul Delaney), Tom Stoppard in Conversation, University of Michigan Press (Ann Arbor, MI), 1994.

(With Mel Gussow), Conversations with Stoppard, Limelight Editions (New York, NY), 1995.

(Author of introduction) Duchess of Devonshire, Counting My Chickens: And Other Home Thoughts, Farrar, Straus (New York, NY), 2002.

Contributor of short stories to Introduction 2, 1964; contributor of essay to Anthony Fry, Umbrage Editions, 2002. Reviewer, sometimes under pseudonym William Boot, for Scene, 1962.

Work in Progress

The screenplay adaptations of His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, and Tulip Fever, by Deborah Moggach.

Sidelights

The plays of multi-award-winning British playwright Tom Stoppard have revolutionized twentieth-century theatre with their uniquely comic combinations of verbal intricacy, complex structure, and philosophical themes. With such works as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Jumpers, Travesties, and The Real Thing to his credit, Stoppard compares with "the masters of the comic tradition," Joan Fitzpatrick Dean wrote in Tom Stoppard: Comedy as a Moral Matrix. "Like the best comic dramatists, his gift for language and physical comedy fuses with an active perception of the excesses, eccentricities, and foibles of man." "Stoppard is that peculiar anomaly—a serious comic writer born in an age of tragicomedy and a renewed interest in theatrical realism," Enoch Brater summarized in Essays on Contemporary British Drama. "Such deviation from dramatic norms … marks his original signature on the contemporary English stage," the critic continued, for his "'high comedy of ideas' is a refreshing exception to the rule."

Born Tomas Straussler in Czechoslovakia in 1937, Stoppard and his parents emigrated to England when he was young. Because his family was relatively affluent—his father was a physician—Stoppard was able to attend good schools in both Europe and England. After college, he began a career as a journalist, beginning as a reporter for Bristol, England's Western Daily Press and soon graduating to critic. Although he continued to work as a journalist

throughout much of the 1950s and 1960s, Stoppard also began to develop his talents as a playwright, and in 1963 left journalism for good. The reason: his first teleplay, Walk on the Water, was produced by British television, and with several radio plays also in production, Stoppard decided to devote his full attention to his ultimate goal: writing for the stage. In 1965 his first play, The Gamblers, was produced in Bristol; his first play to reach the London stage was 1966's Tango.

From Journalist to Dramatist

"Stoppard's virtuosity was immediately apparent" in his first major dramatic work, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Mel Gussow wrote in the New York Times. The play, which won the London Evening Standard award for best new play in 1967, revisits Shakespeare's Hamlet through the eyes of the two players whose task of delivering Hamlet's death sentence prompts their own execution instead. Vaguely aware of the scheming at Elsinore and their own irrelevance to it, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern meander through the drama playing games of language and chance until, circumscribed by Shakespeare's script, they cease to exist. By turning Hamlet "inside out" in this way, the play is able "to be simultaneously frivolous in conception but dead serious in execution," Brater stated, and it addresses issues of existentialism reminiscent of Samuel Beckett's drama Waiting for Godot. The result, the critic added, "is not only a relaxed view of Hamlet, but a new kind of comic writing halfway between parody and travesty."

Also notable is the play's innovative use of language and Shakespeare's actual text. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is interwoven with references to Hamlet as well as actual lines of the bard's verse; in addition, Stoppard packs the drama with "intricate word plays, colliding contradictions and verbal and visual puns," as Gussow described it. "Stoppard's lines pant with inner panic," a Time reviewer noted, as the title characters, according to Village Voice's Michael Smith, ultimately "talk themselves out of existence." The play, one of his earliest works, has also become one of Stoppard's most popular and acclaimed works, and in 1991 the playwright directed a film adaptation of the stage drama. "With its dazzling feel for the duplicities and delights of language and its sense that modern consciousness is a gummed-up kaleidoscope that needs to be given a severe shake," Jack Kroll of Newsweek contended, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern established "the characteristic Stoppard effect."

Stoppard makes use of another dramatic "adaptation" in his second Tony Award-winner, Travesties. The play takes as its starting point the historical fact

that Zurich of 1917 was inhabited by three revolutionaries: the Communist leader Lenin, modernist writer James Joyce, and dadaist poet-critic Tristan Tzara. Their interactions are related through the recollections of Henry Carr, a minor British official who meets Lenin at the local library and the others during a production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. In a manner similar to that of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Stoppard uses plot line and characterization from Wilde's play to parallel and emphasize events and characters in his own work; the play "races forward on Mr. Stoppard's verbal roller coaster, leaving one dizzy yet exhilarated by its sudden semantic twists, turns, dips, and loops," Wilborn Hampton remarked in the New York Times. The result, Anne Wright wrote in her Dictionary of Literary Biography essay, is "a virtuoso piece, a 'travesty' of the style of each of its masters, including Joycean narrative and dadaist verse as well as Wildean wit. The parody extends to the discourse appropriate to Lenin, as the play incorporates lectures and polemical sequences."

Political Satire Set to Music

Stoppard's political concerns come to the fore in Every Good Boy Deserves Favor, a piece for actors and orchestra set to the music of Andre Previn. Set in a prison hospital inhabited by lunatics and dissidents, Every Good Boy Deserves Favor "has the witty dialogue and clever plot that we associate with Stoppard's plays, and a sense of social concern that we didn't," Los Angeles Times critic Dan Sullivan recounted. Stoppard brings the musicians into the action of the play through the character of a madman

who believes he conducts an imaginary orchestra; not only does the group respond to his direction, but one of the violinists doubles as his psychiatrist. The play's use of "irony, mixed identities, outrageous conceits (not to mention a full-scale symphony orchestra)," observed Washington Post contributor Michael Billington, distinguishes it as "the work of a dazzling high-wire performer." In addition, the critic noted, Every Good Boy is "a profoundly moral play about the brainwashing of political dissidents in Soviet mental hospitals."

John Simon of New York, however, faulted the play for being "too clever by half," and added that the concept of a play for full orchestra seems forced and contrived. But Gussow, in his review of the Metropolitan Opera production, thought that "the full orchestra and the enormous stage give the play a richness and even an opulence that embellishes the author's comic point of view." He continued: "So much of the comedy comes from the contrast between the small reality—two men in a tiny cell—and the enormity of the delusion." "Nothing if not imaginative, Stoppard's plot makes the orchestra an active, provocative participant in the story," Richard Christiansen of the Chicago Tribune similarly declared. Nevertheless, the critic advised, the play also stands "on its own as a moving and eloquent work, an occasional piece of quick wit and deep thoughtfulness."

With Night and Day former journalist Stoppard broaches another "public issue—the role of the press in what is commonly called the Western World," as James Lardner described it in the Washington Post. Set in an African nation beset by revolution, Night and Day looks at issues of censorship, politics, colonialism, and journalistic ethics through the character of a young, idealistic reporter. "There are theatergoers who will not sit still for a play that encompasses an intellectual debate, no matter how gracefully rendered," Lardner commented, and indeed, some observers have criticized the play for emphasizing ideas over characters. New York Times reviewer Walter Kerr, for instance, said that "virtually no effort is made during the evening to link up thought and events, arguments and action. The debate really takes place in a void." In contrast, Judith Martin thought that in Night and Day "it even seems as if the good lines were written for the play, rather than the play's having been written to display unrelated good cracks," as she wrote in the Washington Post Weekend. "This is a taut drama, dealing intelligently and with a degree of moral passion with a range of difficult issues," Wright concluded. "Moreover, despite its clear plea for freedom of speech and action, the play does not oversimplify the issues: Night and Day presents a genuine dramatic debate which confronts divergent and often contradictory attitudes."

Heady Themes Sparked by "Verbal Pyrotechnics"

In the double-bill Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth, Stoppard "brilliantly harnesses his linguistic ingenuity to his passion for the cause of artistic freedom," Gerald M. Berkowitz noted in Theatre Journal. In the first half, Dogg's Hamlet, a group of schoolboys contort the English language by giving entirely new meanings to familiar words; their interactions with puzzled outsiders culminate in an abbreviated performance of Hamlet. The second play, Cahoot's Macbeth, presents an underground performance of Shakespeare which is interrupted by government censors; only by switching to "Dogg," the language of the first play, do the actors avoid arrest. Critics have split over the effectiveness of this double-bill. Chicago Tribune writer Sid Smith, for instance, found that the second play "promises more than it delivers, certainly more than a rehash of the first play's comedy." Berkowitz, however, thought that "Stoppard knows what he's doing," for instead of reducing "this serious play to the farcical level of the first" the switch to Dogg reinforces his message, which "strikes us with tremendous power: repressive societies fear artistic expression because it is a 'language' they don't share and thus can't control." As a result, the critic concluded, Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth "may well be [Stoppard's] most important play so far, and a harbinger of major works to come."

Berkowitz's words were prophetic, for in 1982 Stoppard premiered one of his most highly acclaimed dramas, The Real Thing. While the playwright returned to a favorite form—that of the play-withina-play—his subject—"an imaginatively and uniquely theatrical exploration of the pain and the power of love," as Christiansen characterized it—surprised many critics. The opening reveals a man confronting his wife with evidence of her adultery; it soon becomes clear, however, that this encounter is only a scene in a play. "Reality" is much more complex, for the actors in the first scene are being betrayed by their spouses—the playwright and his mistress Annie, another actress. Henry is the successful author of witty, cerebral dramas of infidelity, but his own struggles with love, especially those in his sometimes-troubled marriage to Annie, prove more difficult and painful. Annie's romantic involvement with a young actor and professional involvement with the young revolutionary Brodie cause Henry to not only question his assumptions about love, but his opinions about the significance of writing. While the meaning of the "real thing" might seem a commonplace theme for Stoppard to examine, "home truths can be banal," Sullivan observed. "All that an author can do is to write a non-banal play around them, and this Stoppard has done."

While many of Stoppard's plays have captured public attention despite their serious themes, some have proved to be more challenging than the average theatregoer might desire. His play Arcadia juxtaposes three different time periods on one stage—the years 1809 and 1812 as well as the present day—and combines such topics as mathematics and chaos theory, landscape gardening, and Lord Byron. In addition, Anne Barton noted in the New York Review of Books, "Arcadia constantly engages the imaginary in a dialogue with the historically true." Several reviewers noted the need for playgoers to review the printed text before seeing the play, see the play twice, or utilize both methods to yield a better understanding of the complex story. The Coast of Utopia is also a demanding work, and not just because the trilogy of plays is over nine hours long. The three works, Voyage, Shipwreck, and Salvage, cover thirty-five tumultuous years in the history of Russia, from 1833 to 1868, through the eyes of three radicals: Michael Bakunin, Vassarion Belinsky, and Alexander Herzen. Most of the major thinkers of the nineteenth century Russian intelligentsia make an appearance, as does Marx (in a dream), the German thinker who inspired the Communist movement. To Toby Young of the Spectator, the trilogy is "such heavy going that for several hours at a stretch it feels like watching history unfold in real time," but the Nation's Carol Rocamora was more impressed. To her, The Coast of Utopia is "both a mesmerizing history lesson and a theatergoing discovery, leaving you dazzled, dazed and off to the theater bookstore to delve into this period of history."

Pens Film Shakespeare in Love

Stoppard's talents extend beyond writing for the stage; he is also noted for his radio plays, as well as for such highly literate screenplay adaptations as Empire of the Sun, The Russia House, Tulip Fever, and his own Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. His most notable screenplay, however, is an original one: Shakespeare in Love, which won Stoppard and his collaborator Marc Norman both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. The film lightheartedly imagines Shakespeare (played by Joseph Fiennes) as a struggling young writer, searching for inspiration for his current play, Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter. He finds it in the person of Lady Viola de Lesseps (played by Gwyneth Paltrow), who, disguised as a boy, takes a role in one of Shakespeare's plays. To truly understand the film, Lisa Schwarzbaum commented in Entertainment Weekly, the viewer needs "an adult appreciation of mistaken-identity plot devices and the Elizabethan tradition of men performing as women." Stoppard and Norman also weave quotations from various Shakespearean works into the dialogue, rewarding audience members who are familiar with the Shakespearean canon. In order to make those quotations work, throughout the film Stoppard and Norman "provide a modernization of Elizabethan language sleek enough to speed the action along but also 'period' enough for the several excerpts from Romeo not to seem too archaic by contrast," Richard Alleva noted in Commonweal.

Stoppard's use of various dramatic techniques, intricately worked into innovative forms, contribute much to the vitality of his plays, as well as for his film. "He is a skilled craftsman," Wright said, "handling with great dexterity and precision plots of extreme ingenuity and intricacy. The plays are steeped in theatrical convention and stock comic situations, with mistaken identity, verbal misunderstandings, innuendo, and farcical incongruity." The play-wright's use of traditional dramatic elements, contended Dean, reveals his "penchant for and skill in parodying popular dramatic genres. Like most contemporary playwrights, he has not contented himself

with the confines of representational drama but has broken out of those constraints by [reviving use] … of the soliloquy, aside, song, and interior monologue." Despite his "free" use of various dramatic forms, Stoppard is able to superimpose an overall structure on his plays, Victor Cahn declared in his Beyond Absurdity: The Plays of Tom Stoppard: "Amid all the clutter and episodic action, a structure emerges, a tribute to the organizing powers of the playwright's rationality and his expectations of the audience's ability to grasp that structure." As the author related to Kroll, "Theater is an event, not a text. I respond to spectacle. Ambushing the audience is what theater is all about."

If you enjoy the works of Tom Stoppard

If you enjoy the works of Tom Stoppard, you may also want to check out the following plays:

Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot, 1952.

N. F. Simpson, A Resounding Tinkle, 1957.

Eugène Ionesco, Exit the King, 1962.

Part of Stoppard's "ambush" involves the way he shrewdly infuses his plays with sophisticated concepts. As Billington described, Stoppard "can take a complex idea, deck it out in fancy dress and send it skipping and gambolling in front of large numbers of people," for the playwright has "a matchless ability to weave into a serious debate boffo laughs and knockdown zingers." This combination has led some critics to attempt to classify his works as either humorous or philosophical. Stoppard himself, however, believes that questions concerning the comic intent of his works are superfluous; "All along I thought of myself as writing entertainments, like The Real Inspector Hound, and plays of ideas …," the author told Gussow. "The confusion arises because I treat plays of ideas in just about the same knockabout way as I treat the entertainments." He further explained to Washington Post contributor Joseph McLellan: "The stuff I write tends to work itself out in comedy terms most of the time." But whatever degree of comedy or seriousness in Stoppard's approach, Nightingale concluded in the New York Times, he has been consistent in the themes he examines: "All along he's confronted dauntingly large subjects, all along he's asked dauntingly intricate questions about them, and all along he's sought to touch the laugh glands as well as the intellect."

Biographical and Critical Sources

books

Bigsby, Christopher William Edgar, editor, Writers and Their Work, Longman (London, England), 1976.

Bock, Hedwig, and Albert Wetheim, editors, Essays on Contemporary British Drama, Hueber, 1981.

Brustein, Robert, The Third Theatre, Knopf (New York, NY), 1969.

Cahn, Victor L., Beyond Absurdity: The Plays of Tom Stoppard, Associated University Presses (Cranbury, NJ), 1979.

Concise Dictionary of British Literary Biography, Volume 8: Contemporary Writers, 1960-Present, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1992.

Contemporary Dramatists, sixth edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1999.

Contemporary Literary Criticism, Gale (Detroit, MI), Volume 1, 1973, Volume 3, 1975, Volume 4, 1975, Volume 5, 1976, Volume 8, 1978, Volume 15, 1980, Volume 29, 1984, Volume 34, 1985, Volume 63, 1991, Volume 91, 1996.

Dean, Joan Fitzpatrick, Tom Stoppard: Comedy as a Moral Matrix, University of Missouri Press (Columbia, MO), 1981.

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Gale (Detroit, MI), Volume 13: British Dramatists since World War II, 1982, Volume 233: British and Irish Dramatists since World War II, Second Series, 2001.

Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook: 1985, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1985.

International Directory of Theatre, Volume 2: Playwrights, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1993.

Nadel, Ira, Double Act: A Life of Tom Stoppard, Methuen (London, England), 2002, published as Tom Stoppard: A Life, Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

Newsmakers 1995, Issue 4, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1995.

Reference Guide to English Literature, second edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1991.

Schlueter, June, Dramatic Closure: Reading the End, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press (Madison, NJ), 1995.

Taylor, John Russell, The Second Wave: British Drama for the Seventies, Hill & Wang (New York, NY), 1971.

periodicals

Advocate, May 8, 2001, Gerard Raymond, interview with Stoppard, p. 69.

America, February 18, 1984; January 29, 1994, p. 23; April 22, 1995, James S. Torrens, review of Arcadia, p. 23; September 23, 2000, Frederick P. Tollini, review of The Real Thing, p. 24.

American Scientist, November-December, 2002, Harry Lustig and Kirsten Shepherd-Barr, "Science as Theater: From Physics to Biology, Science is Offering Playwrights Innovative Ways of Exploring the Intersections of Science, History, Art and Modern Life," pp. 550-555.

American Theatre, December, 1995, Mel Gussow, interview with Stoppard, pp. 22-28; September, 2001, Bab Mondello, review of The Invention of Love, p. 76; November, 2002, Matt Wolf, Celia Wren, and Julia M. Klein, review of The Coast of Utopia and Every Good Boy Deserves Favor, pp. 40-43.

Antioch Review, spring, 1996, David Guaspari, review of Arcadia, pp. 222-238.

Atlantic, May, 1968; December, 2002, review of The Coast of Utopia, pp. 141-146.

Back Stage, April 7, 1995, David Sheward, review of Arcadia, p. 56; August 29, 1997, Eric Grode, review of Rough Crossing, p. 48; September 17, 1999, Irene Backalenick, review of On the Razzle, p. 96; November 19, 1999, May 19, 2000, Roger Armbrust, "Tom Stoppard Receives England's Highest Honor," p. 2; December 8, 2000, review of The Invention of Love, p. 15; April 13, 2001, David A. Rosenberg, review of The Invention of Love, p. 56; November 22, 2002, J. Cooper Robb, review of Every Good Boy Deserves Favor, p. 7.

Back Stage West, August 3, 2000, John Angell Grant, review of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, p. 18; June 12, 2003, Kristina Mannion, review of The Real Thing, p. 11; September 25, 2003, Emily Parker, review of Rough Crossing, p. 15.

Chicago Tribune, April 24, 1985; June 3, 1985; September 20, 1985; March 17, 1991.

Christian Science Monitor, April 25, 1974; November 6, 1975; December 6, 1982; January 11, 1984, John Beaufort, review of The Real Thing, p. 21.

Commentary, December, 1967; June, 1974.

Commonweal, November 10, 1967; February 12, 1999, Richard Alleva, review of Shakespeare in Love, pp. 16-17; June 16, 2000, Celia Wren, review of The Real Thing, p. 17.

Contemporary Literature, summer, 1979.

Contemporary Review, March, 2003, Michael Karwowski, "All Right: An Assessment of Tom Stoppard's Plays," pp. 161-166.

Daily Variety, November 26, 2002, Toby Zinman, review of Every Good Boy Deserves Favor, p. 22.

Drama, summer, 1968; fall, 1969; summer, 1972; winter, 1973; autumn, 1974.

East European Quarterly, fall, 2004, Ileana Alexandra Orlich, "Tom Stoppard's Travesties and the Politics of Earnestness," p. 371.

Economist, February 6, 1999, review of Shakespeare in Love, p. 91; August 10, 2002, review of The Coast of Utopia.

Encounter, September, 1974; November, 1975; February, 1983.

Entertainment Weekly, December 11, 1998, review of Shakespeare in Love, p. 43; August 13, 1999, Lisa Schwarzbaum, review of Shakespeare in Love; April 13, 2001, Lawrence Frascella, review of The Invention of Love, p. 67.

Europe Intelligence Wire, October 23, 2002, Lyn Gardiner, review of Arcadia; May 7, 2003, review of Travesties; August 22, 2003, "Stoppard Pays a Visit to 'Utopia.'"

Explicator, winter, 2000, Christopher S. Nassaar, review of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, p. 91.

Financial Times, June 4, 1999, Alastair Macaulay, review of "Thrilling Display of the Heart," p. 18; June 6, 2001, Alastair Macaulay, review of On the Razzle, p. 18; August 5, 2002, Alastair Macaulay, review of The Coast of Utopia, p. 14; June 16, 2003, Alastair Macaulay, interview with Stoppard, p. 17; September 6, 2003, Arkady Ostrovsky, interview with Stoppard, p. 33.

Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, September, 2001, Allen Ellenzweig, review of The Invention of Love, p. 49.

Harper's Bazaar, March, 1995, p. 126.

Hollywood Reporter, July 1, 2003, Ray Bennett, review of Jumpers, p. 63.

Hudson Review, winter, 1967-68; summer, 1968.

Insight on the News, May 21, 2001, Rex Roberts, review of The Invention of Love, p. 26.

Journal of Modern Literature, winter, 2000, Carrie Ryan, "Translating The Invention of Love: The Journey from Page to Stage for Tom Stoppard's Latest Play," pp. 197-206.

Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, December 5, 1994, Clifford A. Ridley, review of Hapgood, p. 1205K5825; December 30, 1998, Larry Swindell, review of The Invention of Love, p. K2956; April 2, 2001, Graham Fuller, interview with Stoppard, p. K7157.

Life, February 9, 1968.

Listener, April 11, 1968; April 18, 1968; June 20, 1974.

London Magazine, August, 1968; August-September, 1976.

Long Island Business News, June 30, 2000, Richard Scholem, review of The Real Thing, p. 39A.

Look, December 26, 1967; February 9, 1968.

Los Angeles Times, June 6, 1986; December 20, 1986; February 20, 1991; December 12, 1998, Patrick Pacheco, interview with Stoppard, p. F1; April 17, 2001, Michael Phillips, review of The Invention of Love, p. F4.

Modern Drama, winter, 1997, Susanne Arndt, "'We're All Free to Do as We're Told': Gender and Ideology in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing," pp. 489-501; spring, 1997, Prapassaree Kramer and Jeffrey Kramer, "Stoppard's Arcadia: Research, Time, Loss," pp. 1-10; fall, 1998, Laurie Kaplan, "In the Native State: Indian Ink: Footnoting the Footnotes on Empire," p. 337; winter, 1998, Lucy Melbourne, "'Plotting the Apple of Knowledge': Tom Stoppard's Arcadia as Iterated Theatrical Algorithm," p. 557; fall, 1999, Susanne Vees-Gulani, "Hidden Order in the 'Stoppard Set': Chaos Theory in the Content and Structure of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia," p. 411; summer, 2000, Ira B. Nadel, "Tom Stoppard and the Invention of Biography," p. 157.

Nation, November 6, 1967; May 11, 1974; May 18, 1974; May 1, 1995, Tim Appelo, review of Arcadia, pp. 612-613; February 22, 1999, Stuart Klawans, review of Shakespeare in Love, p. 34; September 3, 2001, Carol Rocamora, review of The Seagull, p. 47; May 15, 2000, Elizabeth Pochoda, review of The Invention of Love, p. 33; December 9, 2002, Carol Rocamora, review of The Coast of Utopia, p. 34.

National Observer, October 23, 1967.

National Review, December 12, 1967; November 29, 1993, p. 71; January 25, 1999, John Simon, review of Shakespeare in Love, p. 54.

New Criterion, September, 2002, Mark Steyn, review of The Coast of Utopia, pp. 46-50.

New Leader, September 21, 1992, p. 21; March 13, 1995, Stefan Kanfer, review of Arcadia, p. 23; May, 2001, Stefan Kanfer, review of The Invention of Love, p. 57.

New Republic, June 15, 1968; May 18, 1974; November 22, 1975; January 30, 1984; January 30, 1995, Robert Brustein, review of Hapgood, p. 31; July 17, 1995, Robert Brustein, review of Arcadia, pp. 36-37; May 14, 2001, Robert Brustein, review of The Invention of Love, p. 29; May 13, 2002, Stanley Kauffmann, review of Enigma, p. 24.

New Statesman, June 14, 1974; October 10, 1997, Kate Kellaway, review of The Invention of Love, pp. 37-38; January 29, 1999, David Jays, review of Shakespeare in Love, p. 39; September 17, 2001, Philip Kerr, review of Enigma, p. 44; July 8, 2002, Mary Riddell, interview with Stoppard, pp. 22-23; August 26, 2002, Katherine Duncan-Jones, review of The Coast of Utopia, pp. 26-27.

Newsweek, August 7, 1967; August 31, 1970; March 4, 1974; January 8, 1975; November 10, 1975; January 16, 1984; April 3, 1995, Jack Kroll, "Mind over Matter," pp. 64-66; December 14, 1998, David Ansen, interview with Stoppard, p. 78; August 26, 2002, Carla Power, review of The Coast of Utopia, p. 50.

New York, March 11, 1974; May 13, 1974; August 26, 1974; November 17, 1975; August 13-20, 1979; July 26, 1993, p. 51; January 9, 1995, p. 36.

New Yorker, May 6, 1967; October 28, 1967; May 4, 1968; May 6, 1972; March 4, 1974; May 6, 1974; January 6, 1975; January 24, 1977; September 23, 2002, John Lahr, review of The Coast of Utopia.

New York Post, April 23, 1974; January 6, 1984.

New York Review of Books, June 8, 1995, p. 28.

New York Times, October 18, 1967; October 29, 1967; March 24, 1968; May 8, 1968; June 19, 1968; July 8, 1968; October 15, 1968; April 23, 1974; July 29, 1979; August 1, 1979; October 4, 1979; November 25, 1979; November 28, 1979; June 23, 1983, Frank Rich, review of The Real Thing, pp. 21, C15; November 22, 1983, Leslie Bennetts, review of The Real Thing, p. 20; January 6, 1984, Frank Rich, review of The Real Thing, p. 13; January 15, 1984; February 20, 1984; August 1, 1984, Frank Rich, review of The Real Thing, p. 17; May 17, 1987, Benedict Nightingale and Mervyn Rothstein, review of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, p. H5; May 18, 1987, Mel Gussow, review of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, p. 21; November 22, 1987; November 3, 1989; November 26, 1989; December 26, 1989; February 8, 1991; August 14, 1992, Mel Gussow, review of The Real Inspector Hound, p. B2; August 28, 1992, Mel Gussow, review of The Fifteen-Minute Hamlet and On the Razzle, p. B5; July 8, 1993, Frank Rich, review of Arcadia, p. B1; November 6, 1994, Vincent Canby, review of Rough Crossing, p. H32; December 5, 1994, David Richards, review of Hapgood, p. B11; December 11, 1994, Vincent Canby, review of Hapgood, p. H5; February 17, 1995, Donald G. McNeil, Jr., review of Hapgood and Arcadia, p. B2; March 19, 1995, Benedict Nightingale, review of Arcadia, p. H7; March 31, 1995, Vincent Canby, review of Arcadia, p. B1; April 9, 1995, Margo Jefferson, review of Arcadia, p. H5; April 20, 1995, Vincent Canby, review of Indian Ink, p. B1; November 26, 1995, Matt Wolf, review of Taking Sides, p. H4; August 22, 1997, Wilborn Hampton, review of Rough Crossing, p. B2; October 19, 1997, Benedict Nightingale, review of The Invention of Love, p. AR5; December 14, 1997, Vincent Canby, review of The Invention of Love, p. AR4; June 3, 1998, Peter Marks, review of The Sea Gull, p. B5; July 24, 1998, Will Joyner, review of Poodle Springs, p. B30; December 11, 1998, Janet Maslin, review of Shakespeare in Love, p. E16; December 13, 1998, Sarah Lyall, review of Shakespeare in Love, p. 17; January 12, 1999, Mel Gussow, review of Shakespeare in Love, p. E1; November 12, 1999, Jesse McKinley, review of The Real Thing, p. B2; January 29, 2000, Ben Brantley, review of The Invention of Love, p. A17; February 2, 2000, Bernard Weinraub, review of The Invention of Love, p. B1; April 18, 2000, Ben Brantley, review of The Real Thing, p. B1; December 25, 2000, Elvis Mitchell, review of Vatel, p. B5; January 25, 2001, Wilborn Hampton, review of Night and Day, p. B5; March 18, 2001, Mel Gussow and Robin Pogrebin, reviews of The Invention of Love, p. AR7; March 30, 2001, Ben Brantley, review of The Invention of Love, p. B1; April 29, 2001, Margo Jefferson, review of The Invention of Love, p. AR11; May 20, 2001, Matt Wolf, review of The Invention of Love, p. AR11; March 17, 2002, Benedict Nightingale, "In London, Stoppard Joins the Americans," p. TR11; August 4, 2002, Benedict Nightingale, review of The Coast of Utopia, p. AR7; August 21, 2002, Ben Brantley, review of The Coast of Utopia, p. B1; October 22, 2002, Adam Cohen, review of The Coast of Utopia, p. A30; June 23, 2003, Ben Brantley, review of Jumpers, p. E1.

New York Times Book Review, August 25, 1968; March 3, 1996, p. 19.

New York Times Magazine, January 1, 1984, Mel Gussow, "The Real Tom Stoppard," pp. 18-24; May 20, 2001, Amy Barrett, interview with Stoppard, p. 23.

North American Review, May-August, 1998, Robert L. King, review of The Invention of Love, pp. 72-77; May-August, 2003, Robert L. King, review of The Coast of Utopia, pp. 71-76.

Observer (London, England), August 1, 1993.

Observer Review, April 16, 1967; December 17, 1967; June 23, 1968.

Papers on Language and Literature, fall, 2000, Derek B. Alwes, "'Oh, Phooey to Death!': Boethian Consolation in Tom Stoppard's Arcadia," p. 392.

Playboy, May, 1968.

Plays and Players, July, 1970.

Publishers Weekly, February 12, 1996, p. 24.

Punch, April 19, 1967.

Reporter, November 16, 1967.

Sarasota Herald Tribune, May 24, 2002, review of Enigma, p. 19; July 13, 2003, Charlie Huisking, review of Rough Crossing, p. G1; July 22, 2003, Jay Handelman, review of Rough Crossing, p. E3.

Saturday Review, January 8, 1977.

Saturday Review of the Society, August 26, 1972.

Show Business, April 25, 1974.

Spectator, June 22, 1974; April 7, 2001, "Setting Standards," p. 44; March 16, 2002, John McEwen, review of Anthony Fry, p. 52; August 10, 2002, Toby Young, review of The Coast of Utopia, pp. 43-44; July 19, 2003, Toby Young, review of Jumpers, pp. 41-42.

Stage, February 10, 1972.

Sunday Times Review, April 21, 1991.

Theatre Journal, March, 1980.

Time, October 27, 1967; August 9, 1968; March 11, 1974; May 6, 1974; June 20, 1983; August 24, 1992, p. 69; July 19, 1993, p. 60; March 27, 1995, Christopher Porterfield, review of Indian Ink, pp. 74-75; December 14, 1998, Richard Corliss, review of Shakespeare in Love, p. 99; January 25, 1999, Elizabeth Gleick, interview with Stoppard, p. 70; March 13, 2000, William Tynan, review of The Invention of Love, p. 90; May 8, 2000, Richard Zoglin, review of The Real Thing, p. 97; May 6, 2002, Richard Schickel, review of Enigma, p. 66.

Times (London, England), November 18, 1982; April 3, 1985; April 13, 1993, Nigel Hawkes, interview with Stoppard, p. 29.

Times Literary Supplement, March 21, 1968; December 29, 1972; November 26, 1982; December 24, 1982; April 23, 1993, Marilyn Butler, review of Arcadia, p. 18; October 1, 1993, Frank Whitford, review of Travesties, p. 19; March 17, 1995, Peter Kemp, review of Indian Ink, p. 17; September 29, 1995, p. 23; October 10, 1997, Jeremy Treglown, review of The Invention of Love, p. 20; February 5, 1999, Katherine Duncan-Jones, review of Shakespeare in Love, p. 18; April 19, 2002, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, review of The Inland Sea, p. 19; August 9, 2002, Peter Kemp, review of The Coast of Utopia, pp. 3-4.

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Transatlantic Review, summer, 1968.

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Village Voice, May 4, 1967; October 26, 1967; May 2, 1974.

Virginia Quarterly Review, autumn, 1995, p. 642.

Vogue, November 15, 1967; April 15, 1968; December, 1994, p. 180.

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Washington Post, May 11, 1969; June 25, 1969; July 9, 1969; August 29, 1978; November 26, 1978; January 12, 1984; May 23, 1985.

Washington Post Weekend, October 19, 1979.

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World and I, May, 2003, Herb Greer, review of The Coast of Utopia, p. 228.

World Literature Today, winter, 1978; summer, 1986; spring, 1995, p. 369; winter, 1996, p. 193.*

Tom Stoppard

BORN: 1937, Zlin, Czechoslovakia

NATIONALITY: English

GENRE: Drama

MAJOR WORKS:
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966)

Jumpers (1972)
Travesties (1974)
Shakespeare in Love (1998)
The Coast of Utopia (2002)

Overview

One of England's most important playwrights, Tom Stoppard has gained a wide international audience. His plays revolutionized modern theater with their uniquely comic combinations of verbal intricacy, complex structure, and philosophical themes.

Works in Biographical and Historical Context

Born into Conflict Thomas Straussler (Stoppard) was born on July 3, 1937, in Zlin, Czechoslovakia, to Eugene, a doctor, and Martha Straussler. In 1939, troops from Nazi Germany invaded the country; according to Nazi racial laws, there was “Jewish blood” in the family, so Stoppard's father was transferred to the island of Singapore in Southeast Asia in 1939, taking the family with him. When the Japanese invaded Singapore in 1942, the women and children were taken to India. Dr. Straussler stayed behind as a British Army volunteer and was killed as a captive in a Japanese prison camp.

From School to Journalism In Darjeeling, India, Thomas attended an American boarding school. In 1945, his mother married Kenneth Stoppard, a British Army major, and both of her sons took his name. When the family moved to England, Stoppard continued his education at a preparatory school in Yorkshire until the age of seventeen, when he felt that he had had enough schooling. Stoppard became first a reporter and then a critic for the Western Daily Press of Bristol from 1954 to 1958. He left the Daily Press and worked as a reporter for the Evening World, also in Bristol, from 1958 to 1960. Stoppard then worked as a freelance reporter from 1960 to 1963. During these years, he experimented with writing short stories and short plays. In 1962 he moved to London in order to be closer to the center of the publishing and theatrical worlds in the United Kingdom.

Radio Plays Stoppard's first radio plays for the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) were aired in 1964, with two more following in 1965—the same year he met and married his first wife, nurse Josie Ingle. His first television play appeared the next year, as did his only novel and the stage play that established his reputation as a playwright, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. The play takes two minor characters from William Shakespeare's Hamlet and shows the world of the Danish prince from a different perspective. More than an oblique look at a dramatic classic, it is an examination of existentialist philosophy—the belief that human beings are both free and responsible for their actions and that this responsibility is the source of their feelings of dread and anguish—with protagonists who learn that they are to die and must accept their fate. The play earned Stoppard his first Tony Award in 1966.

Television Plays That same year, Stoppard produced Tango, based on a work by Slawomir Mrozek, followed by two more television plays in 1967. The year 1968 saw another television play and two short works for the theater. By 1970, after Stoppard returned to the BBC with two more radio plays, two more television plays, and another stage piece, he began to make connections in the world of alternative theater. He became acquainted with Ed Berman from New York City's off-off-Broadway, who was attempting to establish an alternative theater in London. Stoppard composed a single play for performance in 1971 at the Almost Free Theater, a feeble double bill in 1975, and Night and Day, which prompted lengthy discussion in 1978.

In 1972, the same year Stoppard met and married Miriam Stern, he presented Jumpers, his second major work, which begins with circus acts and evolves into religious and moral philosophy. As philosophical ideas began to eclipse characters in his drama, critics began to get restless. While Stoppard was making a name for himself with intellectual debates over ethics, morality, censorship, and other modern problems, critics were shifting in their seats.

Major Stage Plays After a collaborative effort with Clive Exton two years later, Stoppard produced his third major work, Travesties. The play is based on the premise that Vladimir Lenin, James Joyce, and Tristan Tzara all lived in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I. Stoppard illuminates the purpose and significance of art by fostering the interaction of the three men's theories: Lenin's Marxism, Joyce's modernism, and Tzara's Dadaism. Travesties won Stoppard his second Tony Award in 1976.

A year later, Stoppard presented Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, a tour de force premiered by the Royal Shakespeare Company and the hundred-piece London Symphony Orchestra conducted by André Previn at the Royal Festival Hall. Brought to the United States, it was presented at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York with an eighty-one-piece orchestra. Concerning a dissident in an Iron Curtain country who has been placed in a mental institution, the play's attack on the totalitarian state was the author's strongest political statement up to that time. He was named a commander of the British Empire that same year.

The year 1979 brought three more plays, and by 1982, Stoppard was delivering his fourth major work. The Real Thing won Stoppard another Tony Award in 1984, but again critical opinion was divided: Some reviews touted Stoppard's continued combination of humor and complexity, while other critics, such as Robert Brustein, discounted the work as just “another clever exercise in the Mayfair mode, where all of the characters … share the same wit, artifice and ornamental diction.”

Multiple Successes Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Stoppard enjoyed a series of successes, including the Emmy Award–nominated television play Squaring the Circle (1984); the Academy Award–nominated screenplay Brazil (1985); and the Academy Award–winning screenplay Shakespeare in Love. He was knighted in 1997 and elevated to the Order of Merit in 2000. Also in 2000, Stoppard's play The Real Thing was performed in a limited engagement at the Albery Theatre, London, before opening on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. It won a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play.

In 2006, Stoppard's significantly revised trilogy of plays, The Coast of Utopia, opened at its U. S. premiere in New York City. It is also heavily rumored that the successful playwright was on-site to assist with the dialogue in George Lucas's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005), as well as in Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow (1999). On June 3, 2006, Stoppard's Rock ‘n’ Roll premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London. As with Stoppard's former successes, the play received mixed reviews for its controversial treatment of anticommunist, leftist, and artistic dissent. The rock music-driven drama opened in February 2007 at Prague's National Theatre and in November 2007 at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre in New York, where it was scheduled to run until March 2008.

Works in Literary Context

Complexity Describing Stoppard's style, critic and scholar Enoch Brater notes in Essays on Contemporary British Drama how Stoppard presents “a funny play” in which he “makes coherent, in terms of theatre, a fairly complicated intellectual argument.” Brater also adds, “That the argument is worth making, that it is constantly developing and sharpening its focus, and that it always seeks to engage an audience in a continuing dialogue, are the special characteristics of Stoppard's dramatic achievement. They are also the features which dignify and ultimately transform the comic tradition to which his work belongs.” Brater has summarized the complexity of language, ideas, and technique as they are so skillfully combined with humor.

LITERARY AND HISTORICAL CONTEMPORARIES

Stoppard's famous contemporaries include:

Vladimir Bukovsky (1942–): Russian author and activist. Bukovsky is most noted for being a former Soviet political dissident.

Václav Havel (1936–): Czech writer and dramatist who was the ninth and final president of Czechoslovakia and the first president of the Czech Republic.

Mick Jagger (1943–): An English rock musician who performs as the front man for one of the world's most successful bands, the Rolling Stones.

Peter O'Toole (1932–): An award-winning Irish actor often remembered for his iconic performance in Lawrence of Arabia.

Edward Albee (1928–): An American playwright associated with the theater of the absurd, which explores domestic frustration and anguish.

André Previn (1930–), a German-born American award-winning pianist, composer, and conductor.

Entertainments “Writing entertainments,” Stoppard told interviewer Mel Gussow, is what he considers he has been doing all along. Stoppard does, however, understand that his humor is complicated by intellectual ideas that sometimes displace the characters. Between fun plays like The Real Inspector Hound and “plays of ideas like Jumpers,” he told Gussow, “the confusion arises because I treat plays of ideas in just about the same knockabout way as I treat the entertainments.” Still, he reasoned to Washington Post interviewer Joseph McLellan, “The stuff I write tends to work itself out in comedy terms most of the time.”

Humor in Problematic Truth Whatever the degree of comedy or seriousness in Stoppard's approach, scholar and critic Benedict Nightingale of the New York Times concludes that Stoppard is consistent in the themes he examines: “All along he's confronted dauntingly large subjects, all along he's asked dauntingly intricate questions about them, and all along he's sought to touch the laugh glands as well as the intellect.” Because of the contrasting light tone and cerebral weightiness of his plays, however, others have made specific efforts to define Stoppard's thematic concerns as he presents them within his plays. His ideas encompass such concepts as “the nature of perception, art, illusion and reality, the relativity of meaning, and the problematic status of truth,” scholar Anne Wright observes in a Dictionary of Literary Biography article, with “recurring themes includ[ing] chance, choice, freedom, identity, memory, time, and death.” Stoppard, however, has offered a simpler interpretation. Speaking to Tom Prideaux of Look, the enigmatic playwright said, “One writes about human beings under stress—whether it is about losing one's trousers or being nailed to the cross.”

Influences Stoppard has been said to show—and sometimes admits to showing—influences from Henry James, James Joyce, and A. E. Housman, as well as absurdists such as Polish writer Václav Havel and Irish minimalist writer Samuel Beckett. Stoppard also takes inspiration from the works of existentialist philosophers, such as Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre, primarily since existentialism is a fundamental part of the Theater of the Absurd. Because of Stoppard's unique and unmatched approach to blending such schools of thought and such wit with traditional theatrical conventions, the full measure of the impact Stoppard has had on others is yet to be seen.

Works in Critical Context

Against Classification Because Stoppard's work demonstrates a union of the intellectual to convey ideas with the emotional to express dark humor, several critics have made efforts to classify his works as either philosophical or humorous. Stoppard, however, diplomatically discourages efforts at classification. As he told Newsweek's Jack Kroll, “Theater is an event, not a text. I respond to spectacle. Ambushing the audience is what theater is all about.”

ASerious ComicWriter This “ambush,” the way he shrewdly infuses his plays with sophisticated concepts, is what keeps the critics talking. As Washington Post writer Michael Billington described, Stoppard “can take a complex idea, deck it out in fancy dress and send it skipping and gamboling in front of large numbers of people,” for the playwright has “a matchless ability to weave into a serious debate boffo laughs and knockdown zingers.” Stoppard scholar Joan Fitzpatrick Dean concurred, saying, “Like the best comic dramatists, his gift for language and physical comedy fuses with an active perception of the excesses, eccentricities, and foibles of man.”

Critic Enoch Brater summarized the essence of Tom Stoppard, saying, “Stoppard is that peculiar anomaly—a serious comic writer born in an age of tragicomedy and a renewed interest in theatrical realism. Such deviation from dramatic norms … marks his original signature on the contemporary English stage,” for his ‘high comedy of ideas’ is a refreshing exception to the rule.” Among the plays that best demonstrate this is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

COMMON HUMAN EXPERIENCE

Stoppard is celebrated for his linguistically playful and experimental style. Other works known for their linguistic virtuosity include:

Endgame (1957), a play by Samuel Beckett. In this one-act play, the action is minimal and the dialogue is absurdly unique.

The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), a play by Oscar Wilde. In this comedy of manners, the dialogue is stark and explosive with irony, sarcasm, and social puns.

Lolita (1955), a novel by Vladimir Nabokov. Nabokov's novel is renowned for its wordplay and innovative form.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead “Stop-pard's virtuosity was immediately apparent” in his first major dramatic work, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, New York Times critic Mel Gussow asserted. The play revisits Shakespeare's Hamlet through the eyes of the two players whose task of delivering Hamlet's death sentence prompts their own execution instead. Vaguely aware of the scheming at Elsinore and their own irrelevance to it, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern meander through the drama playing games of language and chance until they cease to exist. “In focusing on Shakespeare's minor characters Stoppard does not fill out their lives but rather extends their thinness,” writer Anne Wright observed. By turning Hamlet “inside out” in this way, the play is “simultaneously frivolous in conception but dead serious in execution,” Brater added, and it addresses issues of existentialism reminiscent of Samuel Beckett's drama Waiting for Godot. The result, Brater concluded, “is not only a relaxed view of Hamlet, but a new kind of comic writing halfway between parody and travesty.”

Especially notable is the play's innovative use of language and Shakespeare's actual text. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead interweaves references to Hamlet with actual lines of the bard's verse. Stoppard packs the drama with “intricate word plays, colliding contradictions and verbal and visual puns,” describes Gussow. This “stylistic counterpoint of Shakespeare's poetry and rhetoric with the colloquial idiom of the linguistic games and music-hall patterns” proves very effective, Wright commented. “Stoppard's lines pant with inner panic,” a Time reviewer noted, as the title characters, according to Village Voice's Michael Smith, ultimately “talk themselves out of existence.” The play became one of Stoppard's most popular and acclaimed works: Twenty years after its premiere, Gussow contended, it “remains an acrobatic display of linguistic pyrotechnics as well as a provocative existential comedy about life in limbo.” Jack Kroll of Newsweek concluded that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern established “the characteristic Stoppard effect.”

Responses to Literature

1. Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia features the character Mikhail Bakunin, a real-life anarchist in prerevolutionary Russia. Find out more about Bakunin's philosophy by reading his God and the State, an unfinished work penned around 1871.
2. Stoppard reimagines the action of Hamlet from the point of view of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Pick another character from Hamlet—perhaps Ophelia, Gertrude, Horatio, or Polonius. Imagine the story from their point of view. Write a narrative in the voice of the character you pick describing the action of the play.
3. Make a list of puns and word play in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. How do these elements contribute to character development? What can you tell about each character by the language, puns, and humor he displays?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books

Barnes, Clive. 50 Best Plays of the American Theatre. New York: Crown Publishers, 1969.

Bock, Hedwig, and Albert Wertheim, eds. Essays on Contemporary British Drama. Munich: Hüber, 1981.

British Dramatists since World War II. Volume 13 of Dictionary of Literary Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1982.

Brustein, Robert. The Third Theatre. New York: Knopf, 1969.

Dean, Joan Fitzpatrick. Tom Stoppard: Comedy as a Moral Matrix. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1981.

Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook: 1985. Detroit: Gale, 1985.

Gussow, Mel. Conversations with Stoppard. London: Nick Hern, 1995.

Hunter, Jim. Tom Stoppard: A Faber Critical Guide. London: Faber & Faber, 2000.

Kelly, Katherine E. The Cambridge Companion to Tom Stoppard. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Periodicals

Billington, Michael and Joseph McLellan. Washington Post (May 11, 1969; June 25, 1969; July 9, 1969; August 29, 1978; November 26, 1978; January 12, 1984; May 23, 1985).

Gussow, Mel, and Benedict Nightingale. New York Times (November 27, 1994); (April 9, 1995): H5.

Kroll, Jack. Newsweek (April 3, 1995): 64–65; (February 8, 1999): 58.

Prideaux, Tom. Look (December 26, 1967); (February 9, 1968).

Smith, Michael. Village Voice (May 4, 1967); (October 26, 1967); (May 2, 1974).

Time (October 27, 1967); (August 9, 1968); (March 11, 1974); (May 6, 1974); (June 20, 1983); (August 24, 1992): 69; (July 19, 1993): 60.

Web sites

Levity.com. Tom Stoppard (1937–). Retrieved February 14, 2008, from http://www.levity.com/corduroy/stoppard.htm.

Malaspina Great Books. Modern Theatre: Tom Stoppard. Retrieved February 14, 2008, from http://www.mala.bc.ca/~MCNEIL/stoppard.htm.

Stoppard, Tom 1937-

PERSONAL

Original name, Thomas Straussler; born July 3, 1937, in Zlin, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic); immigrated to Bristol, England, 1945; naturalized citizen; son of Eugene Straussler (a physician) and Martha Stoppard; stepson of Kenneth Stoppard; married Jose Ingle, 1965 (divorced, 1972); married Miriam Moore-Robinson (a dermatologist and television personality), 1972 (divorced, 1992); children: (first marriage) Oliver, Barnaby; (second marriage) William, Edmund. Education: Attended Dolphin School, Nottinghamshire, England, and Pocklington School, Yorkshire, England. Avocational Interests: Fishing, cricket.

Addresses:

Agent—Peters, Fraser and Dunlop, Drury House, 34-43 Russell St., London WC2B 5HA United Kingdom; Creative Artists Agency, 2000 Avenue of the Stars, Los Angeles, CA 90067.

Career:

Playwright, screenwriter, director, and journalist. Western Daily Press, Bristol, England, reporter and critic, 1954-58; Evening World, Bristol, reporter and critic, 1958-60; freelance reporter, 1960-63; Scene (magazine), reviewer, 1962; Index Against Censorship (magazine), member of publishing committee.

Member:

Royal National Theatre Board, member, 1989—, Royal Society of Literature (fellow), Committee of the Free World.

Awards, Honors:

Ford Foundation grant, 1964; John Whiting Award, Arts Council, 1967; London Evening Standard Award, most promising playwright, 1968; Antoinette Perry Award, best play, and New York Drama Critics Circle Award, 1968, both for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Prix Italia, 1968, for Albert's Bridge (radio play); London Evening Standard Award, 1972, for Jumpers; Antoinette Perry Award, best play, and London Evening Standard Award, 1976, both for Travesties; New York Drama Critics Circle Award, 1976; named Commander of the British Empire, 1978; London Evening Standard Award, 1978, for Night and Day; Giles Cooper Award, for The Dog It Was That Died (radio play); London Evening Standard Award, 1982, and Antoinette Perry Award, best play, 1984, both for The Real Thing; Shakespeare Prize, 1979; Emmy Award nomination (with others), 1984, for Squaring the Circle (television play); Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award (with Terry Gilliam and Charles McKeown), best screenplay, 1985, and Academy Award nomination (with Gilliam and McKeown), best original screenplay, 1986, both for Brazil; Film Award nomination, best adapted screenplay, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, 1989, for Empire of the Sun; Golden Lion Award, Venice Film Festival, 1990, and Directors Week Award, Fantasporto, 1991, both for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (film); London Critics Circle Award, best play, 1993, Evening Standard Award, best play, Laurence Olivier Theatre Award, best play, Society of London Theatre, 1994, Antoinette Perry Award nomination, best play, 1995, and Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, outstanding writing, 1997-98, all for Arcadia; Evening Standard Award, best play, 1997, Antoinette Perry Award nomination, 2000, and New York Drama Critics Circle Award, best play, 2000-01, all for The Invention of Love; New York Film Critics Circle Award, best screenplay, 1998, Academy Award, best writing—screenplay written directly for the screen, Golden Globe Award, best screenplay—motion picture, Film Award nomination, best screenplay—original, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Silver Berlin Bear, outstanding single achievement, Berlin International Film Festival, Screen Award, best screenplay written directly for the screen, Writers Guild of America, Southeastern Film Critics Association Award, best original screenplay, Online Film Critics Society Award nomination, best screenplay—original, Golden Satellite Award nomination, best motion picture screenplay—original, International Press Academy, Florida Film Critics Circle Award, best screenplay, Chicago Film Critics Association Award, best screenplay, Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, best screenplay—original, 1999, and Evening Standard British Film Award, best screenplay, 2000, all (with Marc Norman) for Shakespeare in Love; Theater Hall of Fame, inductee, 2000; Antoinette Perry Award nomination, best play, New York Drama Critics Award, best play, Drama Desk Award nomination, outstanding new play, 2001, all for The Invention of Love; Laurence Olivier Theatre Award, BBC award for best play, 2003, for The Coast of Utopia; Laurence Olivier Theatre Award, best new comedy, 2006, for Heroes; Laurence Olivier Theatre Award, Antoinette Perry Award, best play, 2007, for "Voyage," Coast of Utopia; London Critics Circle Award, best new play, 2007, for Rock 'n' Roll; Sony Award, for In the Native State; Film Award, British Academy for Film and Television Arts, for Professional Foul. Named Commander of the British Empire, 1978; knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, 1997; appointed a Member of the Order of Merit, 2000; honorary degrees from University of Bristol, 1976, Brunel University, 1979, University of Leeds, 1980, University of Sussex, 1980, University of London, 1982, Kenyon College, 1984, and University of York, 1984.

CREDITS

Stage Director:

Born Yesterday, Greenwich Theatre, London, 1973.

Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, New York City, 1979.

Film Director:

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Cinecom, 1991.

Film Appearances:

"In Side Out," 1964.

Himself, The King's Head: A Maverick in London (documentary; also known as A Maverick in London: The Story of the King's Head), 2006.

Television Appearances; Movies:

Poodle Springs, HBO, 1998.

Television Appearances; Specials:

Journey into Light, 1985.

What Is Brazil?, 1985.

Shakespeare in Love and on Film, 1999.

Inside Hollywood: The Pictures, the People, the Academy Awards, ABC, 1999.

The 71st Annual Academy Awards, ABC, 1999.

Presenter, The 55th Annual Tony Awards, CBS and PBS, 2001.

Ronnie Barker: A BAFTA Tribute, BBC, 2004.

Presenter, The British Comedy Awards 2004, ITV, 2004.

The 61st Annual Tony Awards, CBS, 2007.

Television Appearances; Episodic:

"Prologue," The Newcomers, 1977.

"1911," The Newcomers, 1979.

Friday Night, Saturday Morning, 1979.

The Charlie Rose Show (also known as Charlie Rose), PBS, 1995.

Changing Stages, PBS, 2001.

The 26th Annual Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts, CBS, 2003.

"Shakespeare in Love," Movie Connections, 2007.

WRITINGS

Plays:

The Gamblers, produced at Bristol Old Vic Theatre, Bristol, England, 1965.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, first produced at Edinburgh Festival, Scotland, 1966, revised version produced by National Theatre Company, Old Vic Theatre, London, 1967, later Alvin Theatre, New York City, 1967, published by Grove Press, 1967.

Enter a Free Man (two-act; adaptation of Stoppard's television play A Walk on the Water), produced at St. Martin's Theatre, London, 1968, later St. Clement's Theatre, New York City, 1974, published by Grove Press, 1968.

Tango (adaptation), produced at Aldwych Theatre, London, 1968.

The Real Inspector Hound, produced at Criterion Theatre, London, 1968, published by Faber, 1968.

Albert's Bridge (adaptation of Stoppard's radio play of the same title), produced by Oxford Theatre Group, Edinburgh Festival, 1969, published by Samuel French, 1969.

After Magritte, produced at Ambiance Theatre, London, 1970, later produced with The Real Inspector Hound as a double-bill at Theatre Four, New York City, 1972, published with The Real Inspector Hound by Grove Press, 1968, published separately, Faber, 1971.

Dogg's Our Pet, produced at Ambiance Theatre, 1972.

Jumpers, produced by National Theatre Company, Old Vic Theatre, 1972, later Billy Rose Theatre, New York City, 1974, published by Grove Press, 1972, revised edition, Faber, 1986.

The House of Bernarda Alba (adaptation of the play by Frederico Garcia Lorca), produced at Greenwich Theatre, London, 1973.

Travesties, produced at Aldwych Theatre, 1974, then Ethel Barrymore Theatre, New York City, 1974, published by Grove Press, 1975.

Dirty Linen; New-found-land (double-bill), produced at Ambiance Theatre, 1976, then John Golden Theatre, New York City, 1977, published by Grove, 1976.

The Fifteen-Minute Hamlet, Samuel French, 1976.

(With music by Andre Previn) Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, produced in London, 1977, then Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, 1979, published with Professional Foul by Faber, 1978.

Night and Day, produced at Phoenix Theatre, London, 1978, then John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC, later American National Theatre and Academy Theatre, New York City, 1979, published by Faber, 1978, revised edition, Samuel French, c. 1980.

Dogg's Hamlet; Cahoot's Macbeth (double-bill), produced at Collegiate Theatre, London, 1979, then Twenty-Two Steps Theatre, New York City, 1979, published by Faber, 1980.

Undiscovered Country (adaptation of Das weite land by Arthur Schnitzler), produced by National Theatre Company, 1979, published by Faber, 1980.

The Real Thing, produced at Strand Theatre, London, 1982, then Plymouth Theatre, New York City, 1984, published by Faber, 1982, revised edition, 1983.

On the Razzle (adaptation of Einen Jux will er sic machen by Johann Nestroy), produced by National Theatre Company, 1982, then Arena Stage, Washington, DC, 1982, published by Faber, 1981.

Rough Crossing (adaptation of Play at the Castle by Ferenc Molnar), produced by National Theatre Company, 1984, published by Faber, 1985.

Dalliance (adaptation of the play Liebelei by Schnitzler), produced by National Theatre Company, 1986, published with Undiscovered Country, Faber, 1986.

Hapgood, produced at Aldwych Theatre, 1988, published by Faber, 1988.

Artist Descending a Staircase (adaptation of Stoppard's radio play of the same title), produced at Helen Hayes Theatre, New York City, 1989.

Arcadia, London production, 1993, then Vivian Beaumont Theatre, New York City, 1995, published by Faber, c. 1993.

India Ink, 1995, published by Faber and Faber, 1995.

The Invention of Love, London production, 1997, then Lyceum Theatre, New York City, 2001, published by Grove Press, 1998.

The Coast of Utopia (a trilogy containing Voyage, Shipwreck, and Salvage), 2002, then Vivian Beaumont Theatre, 2006-2007.

Rock 'n' Roll, Royal Court Theatre, then Duke of York's Theatre, London, 2006, then Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, New York City, 2007-2008.

Stage Plays (as Translator):

Vaclav Havel, Largo Desolato, produced by Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven, CT, 1990, published by Faber, 1985.

Anton Chekhov, The Seagull, Shakespeare in the Park, 2001.

Gerald Sibleyras, Heroes, London production, 2006, then Geffen Playhouse, London, 2006.

Screenplays:

(With Thomas Wiseman) The Romantic Englishwoman (also known as Une anglaise romantique), New World, 1975.

(With Wiseman) Despair (also known as Despair ine reise ins licht, based on the work by Vladimir Nabokov), New Line, 1978.

The Human Factor, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists, 1979.

(With Terry Gilliam and Charles McKeown) Brazil, Universal, 1985.

Empire of the Sun, Warner Bros., 1987.

The Russia House (adaptation of the novel by John le Carre), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists, 1990.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (adaptation of Stoppard's stage play of the same title), Cinecom, 1991, screenplay published by Faber, 1991.

Billy Bathgate (adaptation of novel by E. L. Doctorow), Buena Vista, 1991.

The Fifteen Minute Hamlet, 1995.

Shakespeare in Love, Universal, 1998.

(English adaptation) Vatel, Miramax, 2000.

Enigma (also known as Enigma-das geheimnis), Intermedia Films, 2001.

Television Plays:

A Walk on the Water, BBC, 1963, revised as The Preservation of George Riley, BBC, 1964.

A Separate Peace, BBC, 1966, published by Samuel French, 1977.

Teeth (also known as Thirty-Minute Theatre: "Teeth"), BBC, 1967.

Another Moon Called Earth (also known as Thirty-Minute Theatre: "Another Moon Called Earth"), BBC, 1967.

Neutral Ground, BBC, 1968.

The Engagement, NBC, 1970.

One Pair of Eyes (documentary), BBC, 1972.

(With Clive Exton) Eleventh House, BBC, 1975.

(With Exton) Boundary (also known as Eleventh Hour: Boundary), 1975, published by Samuel French, 1991.

Three Men in a Boat (adaptation), 1976.

Professional Foul (also known as BBC2 Play of the Week: "Professional Foul"), 1977, published with Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Faber, 1978.

Squaring the Circle, BBC, 1984, published with Every Good Boy Deserves Favour and Professional Foul by Faber, 1984.

On the Razzle, PBS, 1986.

The Dog It Was That Died, 1988.

Largo Desolato (also known as Vaclav Havel's "Largo Desolato"), PBS, 1990.

Television Movies:

Ulazi slobodan covek, 1971.

Konsert for en sluten avdelning, 1984.

Poodle Springs, HBO, 1998.

Radio Plays:

The Dissolution of Dominic Boot, BBC, 1964.

M Is for Moon among Other Things, BBC, 1964.

If You're Glad, I'll Be Frank, BBC, 1965, published with Albert's Bridge, Faber, 1969, published separately, Faber, 1976, revised edition, Samuel French, 1978.

Albert's Bridge, BBC, 1967, published with If You're Glad, I'll Be Frank, Faber, 1969.

Where Are They Now?, BBC, 1970, published with Artist Descending a Staircase, Faber, 1973.

Artist Descending a Staircase, BBC, 1972, published with Where Are They Now?, Faber, 1973, published separately, Faber, 1988.

The Dog It Was That Died, BBC, 1982, published in The Dog It Was That Died and Other Plays, Faber, 1983.

In the Native State, Radio 3, 1991, published by Faber, 1991.

Omnibus Volumes:

Albert's Bridge and Other Plays (contains If You're Glad, I'll Be Frank; Artist Descending a Staircase; Where Are They Now; and A Separate Peace), Grove Press, 1977.

The Dog It Was That Died and Other Plays, Faber, 1983.

Four Plays for Radio (contains Artist Descending a Staircase; Where Are They Now?; If You're Glad, I'll Be Frank; and Albert's Bridge), Faber, 1984.

Stoppard: The Plays for Radio, 1964-1983, Faber, 1990.

Television Plays, 1965-1984, Faber, 1993.

Plays, Faber, 1996.

Plays One: The Real Inspector Hound and Other Entertainments, Faber & Faber, 1996.

Plays Two, Faber & Faber, 1996.

Novels:

Introduction Z, 1964.

Lord Malquist and Mr. Moon, Grove, 1966.

Contributor of short stories to Introduction 2, 1964.

OTHER SOURCES

Books:

Author and Artist for Young Adults, Volume 63, Thomson Gale, 2005.

Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series, Volume 39, Gale, 1992, pp. 405-13.

Contemporary Dictionary of British Literary Biography, Volume 8: Contemporary Writers, 1960-Present, Gale Research, 1992.

Contemporary Dramatists, 6th ed., St. James Press, 1999.

Encyclopedia of World Biography, Gale, 1998.

Gusow, Mel, Conversations with Stoppard, Limelight, 1995.

Nadel, Ira, Tom Stoppard: A Life, Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

Periodicals:

New York Times, January 1, 1984; November 26, 1989.

Time, November 5, 2007, p. 69.

Tom Stoppard

Born: July 3, 1937
Zlin, Czechoslovakia
Czech-born English playwright

One of England's most important playwrights, Czechoslovakian-born Tom Stoppard is popular in the United States as well. His two great stage successes were Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and The Real Thing, and he reached an even wider audience—and won an Academy Award—for his screenplay for the 1998 film Shakespeare in Love.

Early life and career

The second son of a doctor for the Bata shoe manufacturing company, Thomas Straussler (Stoppard) was born on July 3, 1937, in Zlin, Czechoslovakia. The family fell victim to the Nazi racial laws, a wide-ranging set of laws enforced by Germany's radical Nazi Army that were aimed at severely restricting the freedoms of Jews and other minorities. Since there was "Jewish blood" in the family, his father was transferred to Singapore in 1939, taking the family with him. When the Japanese invaded that city in 1942, Thomas's mother fled with her children to India. Dr. Straussler stayed behind and was later killed.

Thomas attended an American boarding school in Darjeeling, India. In 1946 his mother married Kenneth Stoppard, a British army major, and both of her sons took his name. The Stoppards moved to Bristol, England, where Thomas's stepfather worked in the machine tool industry. Thomas continued his education at a preparatory school in Yorkshire, England.

At age seventeen Thomas felt that he had had enough schooling. He became first a reporter and then a critic for the Western Daily Press of Bristol, England, from 1954 to 1958. He left the Press and worked as a reporter for the Evening World, also in Bristol, from 1958 to 1960. Stoppard then worked as a freelance reporter from 1960 to 1963. During these years he experimented with writing short stories and short plays. In 1962 he moved to London, England, in order to be closer to the center of the publishing and theatrical worlds in the United Kingdom.

The playwright

Stoppard's first radio plays for the British Broadcasting Company (BBC), The Dissolution of Dominic Boot and M Is for Moon Among Other Things, aired in 1964. Two more, Albert's Bridge and If You're Glad I'll Be Frank, followed in 1965. His first television play, A Separate Peace, appeared the next year, as did his only novel, Lord Malquist and Mr. Moon, and the stage play that established his reputation as a playwright, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

The year 1968 saw another television play, Neutral Ground, and two short works for the theater, Enter a Free Man and The Real Inspector Hound. In 1970 Stoppard returned to the BBC with the two radio plays, Artist Descending a Staircase and Where Are They Now. He also authored the television plays The Engagement and Experiment in Television as well as the stage work After Magritte. It was about this time that Stoppard became acquainted with Ed Berman from New York City's Off-Off-Broadway. Berman was attempting to establish an alternative theater in London. For him Stoppard composed Dogg's Our Pet, which was produced in 1971 at the Almost Free Theater.

In 1972 Stoppard had presented Jumpers, which begins with circus acts and evolves into religious and moral philosophy (the study of knowledge). Although critics reacted warmly to the play, Jumpers did not enjoy the same praise that had greeted Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Theater critic Stanley Kauffmann labeled it "fake, structurally and thematically," while another critic, John Simon, wrote that "there is even something arrogant about trying to convert the history of Western culture into a series of blackout sketches, which is very nearly what Jumpers is up to."

Two years later Stoppard produced his third major work, Travesties. It is based on the coincidence that Russian exile politician Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924), Irish novelist James Joyce (1882–1941), and the father of the French Dadaist movement in literature and art, Tristan Tzara (1896–1963), were all in Zurich, Switzerland, at times during World War I (1914–18; when German-led forces pushed for European domination). It is assumed that they never met in reality, but their interaction in Stoppard's play asks the question of what defines art. The author's conclusion seems to be that its sole function is to make the meaninglessness (complete emptiness) of life more bearable.

Later works

In 1977 Stoppard offered Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, a remarkable achievement performed for the first time at the Royal Festival Hall by the Royal Shakespeare Company and the one hundred-piece London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andre Previn (1929–). Brought to the United States, it was presented at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City with an eighty-one-piece orchestra.

Stoppard summed up his life's work as an attempt to "make serious points by flinging a custard pie around the stage for a couple of hours." Some of his serious points must have been heard in 1999, when he shared the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay with Marc Norman for their work on the movie Shakespeare in Love. The movie also won the award for Best Picture of the year.

For More Information

Cahn, Victor L. Beyond Absurdity: The Plays of Tom Stoppard. Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1979.

Dean, Joan Fitzpatrick. Tom Stoppard: Comedy as a Moral Matrix. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1981.

Gussow, Mel, ed. Conversations with Stoppard. New York: Limelight Editions, 1995.

Londre, Felicia Hardison. Tom Stoppard. New York: F. Ungar Publishing Company, 1981.

Nadel, Ira Bruce. Tom Stoppard: A Life. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

STOPPARD, Tom

STOPPARD, Tom. British (born Czech Republic), b. 1937. Genres: Novels, Novellas/Short stories, Plays/Screenplays. Career: Journalist, Western Daily Press, Bristol, 1954-58, and Bristol Evening World, 1958-60; freelance journalist, 1960-63. Publications: Enter a Free Man, 1968; (with others) Introduction 2 (short stories), 1964; Lord Malquist and Mr. Moon (novel), 1966; (adapter) Tango, 1966; A Separate Peace, 1966; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, 1967 (screenplay, 1991); The Real Inspector Hound, 1968; Albert's Bridge and If You're Glad I'll Be Frank: Two Plays for Radio, 1969; After Magritte, 1971; Jumpers, 1972; Travesties, 1974; Dirty Linen and New-Found-Land, 1976; The Fifteen Minute Hamlet, 1976; Albert's Bridge and Other Plays, 1977; Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, and Professional Foul, 1978; Night and Day, 1978; (adapter) Undiscovered Country, by Schnitzler, 1980; Dog's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth, 1980; (adapter) On the Razzle, by J. Nestroy, 1981; The Dog It Was That Died and Other Plays, 1983; The Real Thing, 1984; Four Plays for Radio, 1984; Rough Crossing, from play by Molnar, 1985; Dalliance, 1986; Hapgood, 1987; In the Native State, 1991; Stoppard: The Plays for Radio 1964-1983, 1991; Arcadia (play), 1993; (with M. Gussow) Conversations with Stoppard, 1996; Invention of Love, 1997; (with M. Norman) Shakespeare in Love (screenplay), 1999; Doing It, 2001; Enigma (screenplay), 2001; The Coast of Utopia: Voyage, Shipwreck, Salvage, 2002. Address: c/o Kenneth Ewing, PFD, Drury House, 34-43 Russell St, London WC2B 5HA, England.