| | 19,060 (23,613) | 328 | 990 |  (4.04) | 114 | 0 | When the National Theatre needed a last-minute substitute for a canceled production of As You Like It, Kenneth Tynan decided to stage Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a work by an unfamiliar author that had received discouraging notices from provincial critics at its Edinburgh Festival debut. Of course, the play, when it opened in April 1967, met with universal acclaim. In New York the next year, it was chosen best play by the Drama Critics Circle. In such an unlikely way, Tom Stoppard came to light. Born in Czechoslovakia, a country he left (for Singapore) when he was an infant, he began his literary career as a journalist in Bristol, where play reviewing led to playwriting. After Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Stoppard's reputation suffered through the production of a number of minor works, whose intellectual preoccupations were shrugged off by reviewers: Enter a Free Man (1968; "an adolescent twinge of a play," N.Y. Times), The Real Inspector Hound (1968; "lightweight," N.Y. Times), and After Magritte. But in the 1970s, the initial enthusiasms aroused by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were more than vindicated by the production of two full-length plays, Jumpers (1974) and the antiwar play Travesties (1975), whose immense verbal and theatrical inventiveness made them absolute successes on both sides of the Atlantic. Stoppard's method from the start has been to contrive explanations for highly unlikely encounters---of objects (the ironing board, old lady, and bowler hat of After Magritte), characters (Joyce, Lenin, and Tzara in Travesties), and even plays (Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, The Importance of Being Earnest, Travesties, and The Real Thing, 1982). In the 1970s, Tynan called for Stoppard---as a Czech and as an artist---to engage himself politically. But although political subjects have since found their way into pieces from Every Good Boy Deserves Favor (1977) to Squaring the Circle (1985), politics and art seem to have become just two more of the playwright's irreconcilables, which meet, but never join, in the logical frames of his comedy. The presence of political material---such as the Lenin sections that nearly ruin the second part of Travesties---has occasionally strained the structure of the plays. But in The Real Thing Stoppard is comfortable enough with the satire on art and activism to bring a third subject, love, into the mix. Stoppard has acknowledged his Eastern European heritage nonpolitically, in a series of adaptations of plays by Arthur Schnitzler (see Vol. 2), Johann Nestroy, and Ferenc Molnar. (Bowker Author Biography) Tom Stoppard is the author of many plays, including Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Jumpers, Travesties, and The Invention of Love. He lives in London. (Publisher Provided) — biography from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead … (more) |
Disambiguation Notice
(dut)The author was born as Tomas Straussler. After the death of his father, his mother married the Brittish Major Stoppard, and Tom since accepted his name. The Seagull (Translator, some editions) 997 copies, 14 reviews Henry IV (Translator, some editions) 170 copies, 5 reviews Ivanov (some editions) 151 copies, 6 reviews Top members (works)mont1ms (87), Kaethe (55), shearrob (49), justifiedsinner (48), kutheatre (45), rwb24 (44), DawnDrain (36), WMTSD (34), Bethly (30), hatingongodot (30), MASpeech (30), dbarn (29), griscat (27), johnandlisa (27) — more Recently addedhantwerp (1), inunonaizo (2), CodyWard (1), sheamccollough (1), Srking91 (1), ralfy (1), SpartanPlayers (7), daisy_may (1), loulourevisited (1), kingmob2 (1) Legacy LibrariesMember favoritesMembers: saskia17, karlgalle, SandraArdnas, eudaemonist, rwb24, acousticmoose, cdonegan, kleh, Juva, Stuart_A_Williams, Myyst, libbromus, McDirk, MadmaHord, O_Hozomeen, DrRalph, RowanL, private member, theaelizabet, worldsworstbutterfly (show 94 more), Devil_llama, plt, bibliopolitan, Tafadhali, TheoClarke, MissHavisham, ZellaKate, bookwalter, j.a.lesen, vulgarboatman, LordSebastianFlyte, morganize, private member, publia, scvlad, guyphipps, Gy2K, MorosKeres, skullduggery, KariRose, schribe13, g026r, suzecate, tahanis, private member, Parthurbook, griscat, Ms_Inkslinger, hbobrien, camillahoel, JulieGPS, gaal, madA63, readeron, the_red_shoes, private member, themelancholyman, Kiri, Crypto-Willobie, grendelity, sollocks, shearrob, afunamara, fixedinaphrase, estoddert, froggie, ficke-myers, Marensr, dcdobias, kokipy, Cariola, tina_connolly, starcitywoman, private member, Elise, LLeeButler, callyperry, tessac, private member, drangelo, volantwish, kettle666, dkatz, EdwardEinhorn, april1999d, nieksteenhuis, sadiebooks, jazzfish, maradg, scottja, ijon, Genevieve1, miriam2k, usin, riahopkinson, Widsith, mirmir, swanbreast, j.allen, ravel, ellen.w, nataliepm, ciphered, claytonhowl, edwardhenry, Totoro, donutage, brunellus, harshlight, marietherese, palimpsestuous, sycoraxpine, Milesc, languagehat
Tom Stoppard has 4 past events. (show) Shakespeare Festival Reads: The Real Inspector Hound Join us for a reading group discussion of The real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard! Left Bank Books - Central West End (downstairs) Specifically "Dogg's Hamlet" and "Cahoot's Macbeth" Culled from nearly 20 years of the playwright's career, a showcase for Tom Stoppard's dazzling range and virtuosic talent, The Real Inspector Hound and other plays is essential reading for fans of modern drama. The plays in this collection reveal Stoppard's sense of fun, his sense of theater, his sense of the absurd, and his gifts for parody and satire.
Parking: Lots one block north and one block east; street parking (meters free after 7pm)
For directions and public transportation information, click here.
Location: Street: Left Bank Books - Central West End (downstairs) Additional: 399 N. Euclid Ave. City: Saint Louis, Province: Missouri Postal Code: 63108 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)Shakespeare Festival Reads: Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth Join us for a reading group discussion of Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth by Tom Stoppard! Left Bank Books - Central West End (downstairs) This clever romp is two short plays. In the first, a troupe of English schoolboys (played by adults) speak in a mock language called "Dogg." This hilarious language babbles along until the schoolboys, who are studying Shakespeare's "foreign" language, present an incredibly funny 15 minute version of Hamlet and then encore with a two-minute version! The second play, dedicated to dissident Czech dramatist Pavel Kohout, is about a performance of Macbeth he and his friends once staged in a living room since the government banned public performances.
Parking: Lots one block north and one block east; street parking (meters free after 7pm)
For directions and public transportation information, click here.
Location: Street: Left Bank Books - Central West End (downstairs) Additional: 399 N. Euclid City: Saint Louis, Province: Missouri Postal Code: 63108 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)English Theater: Two One-Act Plays (by Tom Stoppard; Robert Anderson) Tom Stoppard Tom StoppardAdmission €10.00/€8.00. In association with Irish PEN. " Shakespearean. Pinteresque. Stoppardian. Once your surname becomes an adjective, you've pretty much hit cultural Nirvana. Sir Tom Stoppard is one of the world's most celebrated and influential playwrights, his distinctive oeuvre characterised by big ideas, coruscating wordplay and passionate humanism.
Stoppard’s 1967 breakthrough Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead set the benchmark, earning the playwright a Tony on Broadway and paving the way for international success on stage, screen and radio – from Jumpers (72) to Rock 'n' Roll (06); from Brazil (85) to the BAFTA winning Shakespeare in Love (98).
Describing himself, with characteristic humility, as a ‘timid libertarian’, Stoppard is in fact a tireless campaigner for civil liberties and human rights. As a vice president of English PEN, he is an ardent champion of freedom of expression. Help celebrate a remarkable career, as Dublin Writers Festival gets up close and personal with one of the seminal figures of 20th and 21st-century British culture." (christiguc)… (more) Event location: MacNeill Theatre, Hamilton Conference Centre, Trinity College. (Lincoln Place Entrance)
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| Canonical name | | | Legal name | | | Other names | | | Date of birth | | | Date of death | | | Burial location | | | Gender | | | Nationality | | | Country (for map) | | | Birthplace | | | Place of death | | | Cause of death | | | Places of residence | | | Education | | | Occupations | | | Relationships | | | Organizations | | | Awards and honors | | | Agents | | | Short biography | Tom Stoppard was born Tomáš Straussler to a Jewish family in ZlÃn, Czechoslovakia. With their parents Eugen Straussler, a doctor employed by the Bata shoe company, and Martha Becková, he and his brother fled the country in 1939 to escape Nazi occupation. \The family went to Singapore, where Bata had a factory. Tom, his mother and brother fled to Australia in 1941. Tom spent three years in a boarding school in Darjeeling, India. In 1945, his mother married Kenneth Stoppard. Tom attended the Dolphin School in Nottinghamshire, and later Pocklington School in Yorkshire. He left school at age 17 and began working as a journalist for the Western Daily Press in Bristol. IHe also wrote short radio plays and in 1960, moved to London and launched himself as a playwright with A Walk on the Water, later re-titled Enter a Free Man.  | |
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Improve this authorCombine/separate worksAuthor divisionTom Stoppard is currently considered a "single author." If one or more works are by a distinct, homonymous authors, go ahead and split the author. IncludesTom Stoppard is composed of 10 names. You can examine and separate out names. Combine with…
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