Tom Stoppard Books

'One of Britain's greatest living playwrights to provide his most personal play yet.' The Times'The news that Tom Stoppard has written a new drama ranks as top-end seismic activity.' Daily Telegraph

Little Theatre Comedy Tom Stoppard Characters: 5 male, 3 female Complete Interior Set Riley's a dreamer with all sorts of off beat inventions and his latest one is a double gummed envelope that can be used twice used: once for sending and then turned inside out for replying. At home Riley is not well liked. His daughter is going to run away and marry a motorcyclist who turns out to be already married, and she can no longer support her dad in his unemployed h

St. Alban's Repertory Theater and School, "Albert's Bridge, or The Firth of Forth Effect," by Tom Stoppard, written as a radio play, this mixed-media production was conceived and photographed by Albert Ihde, production staged by Ted Walch.

The Coast of Utopia is an epic but also intimate drama of romantics and revolutionaries in an age of emperors. The three sequential, self-contained plays, Voyage, Shipwreck and Salvage, span the lives and loves of a group of Russian friends at home and abroad in the tumultuous years between 1833 and 1866.

Tom Stoppard's screenplay of the film Shakespeare in Love, strongly tipped to win an Oscar in 1999. It is 1593 and Will Shakespeare - rising young light of the Elizabethan stage - struggles with writer's block.

Arcadia takes us back and forth between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, ranging over the nature of truth and time, the difference between the Classical and the Romantic temperament, and the disruptive influence of sex on our orbits in life. Focusing on the mysteries—romantic, scientific, literary—that engage the minds and hearts of characters whose passions and lives intersect across scientific planes and centuries, it is "Stoppard's richest, most ravishing comedy to date, a play of wit, intellect, language, brio and . . . emotion. It's like a dream of levitation: you're instantaneously aloft, soaring, banking, doing loop-the-loops and then, when you think you're about to plummet to earth, swooping to a gentle touchdown of not easily described sweetness and sorrow . . . Exhilarating" (Vincent Canby, The New York Times).

Set against the backdrop of Tsarist autocracy, this trilogy delves into the lives of influential figures like anarchist Michael Bakunin and writer Ivan Turgenev, who embody the Russian intelligentsia. The narrative weaves themes of politics, love, and betrayal, focusing on Alexander Herzen, the first self-proclaimed socialist in Russia. Stoppard intricately explores the tensions between romantic anarchy, utopian ideals, and the quest for political freedom, capturing the fervor of a generation of revolutionaries striving for change.

Bringing together some of his most dazzling and popular plays, the fifth volume of Tom Stoppard's collected plays includes works dating from 1978 to 1994. Among them are Night & Day, set among British journalists in a fictional African country; The Real Thing, which The Guardian called "that rare thing ... an intelligent play about love"; and Arcadia, an extraordinary century-crossing play about the nature of truth and time that The Daily Telegraph called simply "a masterpiece".

Mr Stoppard's BBC television debut was sheer delight.' - Richard Last, Daily Telegraph'Plays which enhance civilization itself, which is what this does, are not seen once and laid away.' - Bernard Levin, Sunday TimesProfessional Foul was first shown on BBC TV in September 1977.

Two minor characters from "Hamlet" offer a novel view of the melancholy Dane.

Tom Stoppard's new play is centered around A.E.Housman, poet and Classics scholar, whose most famous poem was A Shropshire Lad. This new play premiered at the Royal National Theatre in 1997, directed by Richard Eyre.

Culled from nearly twenty 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.Includes:“The Real Inspector Hound”“After Margritte”“Dirty Linen”“New-Found-Land”“Dogg’s Hamlet”“Cahoot’s Macbeth”

This collection of plays by Tom Stoppard is a companion to The Radio Plays. The plays in this collection are A Separate Peace, Neutral Ground, Teeth, Another Moon Called Earth, Professional Foul and Squaring the Circle.

'Travesties is a superb comedy, a work of thought and imagination.' Stage and Television 'It is a champagne cocktail, compounded of a balletic nimbleness of invention, a bewildering intricacy of design which reaches the sublime heights where mathematics merge with poetry, and the audacious juggling of ideas of a master conjuror.' Sunday Telegraph 'A dazzling pyrotechnical feat that combines Wildean pastiche, political history, artistic debate, spoof reminiscence, and song-and-dance in marvellously judicious proportions. The text itself is a Joycean web of literary allusions; yet it also radiates sheer intellectual joie de vivre, as if Stoppard were delightedly communicating the fruits of his own researches.' Guardian

Tom Stoppard's take on the story of Penelope, in her own voice, published in pamphlet form with an introduction by the author. Let others sing of war and a hero buffeted by fate.

Henry may be the wittiest playwright of his generation, but he's hopelessly naive when it comes to understanding love and infidelity. Writing about betrayal is one thing, living with it is another. After Henry leaves his wife for another woman, he's confronted with being the cuckold himself

This play is one of three sequential, self-contained plays which tell the story of some of the main actors in the drama of Russian radical opposition in the years pivoted on the European revolutions of 1848. The trilogy spans the early 1830s and the late 1860s.

Dirty Linen and New-Found-Land 2 plays by Tom Stoppard

and it was here, in the intoxicating anticipation and the dashed hopes of the 1848 revolution - when the loss of his political illusions were overshadowed by a series of personal calamities - that Herzen found his greatness, seeking the way forward for Russia, the just society and the good life.

A unique window on an extraordinary life lived with tremendous zest, discrimination, and intelligenceThe Duchess of Devonshire is the youngest of the Mitford siblings, the famous brood that includes the writers Nancy and Jessica. Like them, she has lived an unusually full and remarkable life, and like them she has an inimitable expressive gift. In Counting My Chickens, she has gathered extracts from her diaries and other writings to create a multifaceted portrait of her life at Chatsworth, the home of the Dukes of Devonshire, that is pithy, hilarious, wise, and always richly rewarding.Under the Duchess's inspired supervision, Chatsworth has become one of England's most frequently visited great houses, welcoming over 400,000 visitors a year. The Duchess reveals what it takes to keep such an establishment alive and prospering, tells of transporting a goat by train from the Scottish island of Mull to London, discusses having her portrait painted by Lucian Freud, and provides rich reminisces of growing up a Mitford--along with telling anecdotes about friends from Evelyn Waugh to John F. Kennedy. From Tom Stoppard's adoring Introduction to the author's meditation on the beauty of Elvis Presley's voice, COUNTING MY CHICKENS offers continuous surprise and delight.

Plays Two: The Dissolution of Dominic Boot 'M' is for Moon Among Other Things If You're Glad I'll Be Frank Albert's Bridge Where Are They Now? Artist Descending a Staircase The Dog It Was That Died In the Native State Introduced by the author, this second collection of work by Tom Stoppard contains his radio plays, written between 1964 and 1991. These plays reflect the full range of Stoppard's gifts as well as his craftsmanship and versatility. His work for radio complements (and sometimes prefigures) his work for the stage. Included in this volume is In the Native State, which became the stage play Indian Ink. Albert's Bridge won the Italia Prize and In the Native State won a Sony Award.

The ultimate parody of the stage and literary convention of the country-house mystery. 'It's an object of pure, virtuoso craft and display, as luxuriously self-sufficient as a netsuke or Faberge Easter egg. But it's as nearly perfect in its kind as a P.G. Wodehouse plot; tiny, ludicrous and beautiful as an ivory Mickey Mouse...It's time we stopped dismissing comedy as an inferior genre.' Observer

When Kerner's physics research is leaked to the Russians, Hapgood is assigned to track down the double agent

The Incredible Radical Liberal Jumpers are a team of acrobatic professors of philosophy, whose absurd gymnastic displays reflect a bewildering world where logic has confounded belief in moral absolutes. In this dark, exuberant comedy, Stoppard brilliantly parodies the philosophy lecture, the detective thriller, the comedy of manners and the Whitehall farce, to follow a philosopher's doomed flight to prove the existence of God in the face of an indifferent universe. This is the definitive text of Tom Stoppard's celebrated comedy. 'A dazzling, hilarious and honestly benevolent work, which creates a dramatic structure from a forbidding diversity of materials.' The Times

"Rock 'n' Roll spans the years from 1968 to 1990 from the double perspective of Prague, where a rock 'n' roll band comes to symbolise resistance to the Communist regime, and of Cambridge where the verities of love and death are shaping the lives of three generations in the family of a Marxist philosopher." "Rock 'n' Roll premiered at The Royal Court Theatre, London, in June 2006." --Book Jacket.

The plays in this volume, which complements Selected Plays 1963-1983 are Largo Desolato, Temptation and Redevelopment in versions by Tom Stoppard, George Theiner and James Saunders respectively.Their themes are freedom of thought, Faustian opportunism and town planning as metaphors for life in Eastern Europe before the collapse of Communism, all handled with their author's characteristic wit and irony, and written before he was translated from a prison to the highest office of state.

"Harris, his mother and his wife are a kooky trio. Enter the forceful inspector from Scotland Yard with his constable - which is strange, notes the wife, for she had ordered an ambulance. The officers proceed to place the three under arrest. It is not clear why; something about a parked car, a bunch of .22 caliber shells in the waste basket, and a robbery of the box office of a minstrel show. But Harris has an explanation: he had parked near an art gallery to let his mother see some paintings by Magritte in which her obsessional instrument, the tuba, figured grandly. But then it develops that there was no minstrel show at all, and the plot goes haywire"-- Publisher

This play is set in the fictitious African State of Kambawe, a former British Colony. The action moves from the bush, to the garden and living room of the Carson's home. The time is the present.

Above all don't use the word good as though it meant something in evolutionary science. Hilary, a young psychology researcher at a brain-science institute, is nursing a private sorrow and a troubling question at work, where psychology and biology meet. If there is nothing but matter, what is consciousness? This is 'the hard problem' which puts Hilary at odds with her colleagues who include her first mentor Spike, her boss Leo and the billionaire founder of the institute, Jerry. Is the day coming when the computer and the fMRI scanner will answer all the questions psychology can ask? Meanwhile Hilary needs a miracle, and she is prepared to pray for one. The Hard Problem by Tom Stoppard premieres at the National Theatre, London, in January 2015.

With a new introduction by the authorTom Stoppard's first novel, originally published in 1966 soon after the premiere of his runaway success, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, is a dazzling fantasy set in modern London. The cast includes a penniless, dandified Malquist with a liveried coach, his Boswellian biographer, Moon, who frantically scribbles as a bomb ticks in his pocket, a couple of cowboys, a lion who's banned from the Ritz, an Irishman on a donkey claiming to be the Risen Christ, and three irresistible women.'Superb fantasy, mad, sad and uproarious by turn.' Oxford Times'A highly imaginative and theatrical black comedy, with a cunningly contrived denouement whose absurdity is chillingly logical.' Glasgow Herald'A bizarre book, full of pastiche, with language continually tripping up its characters.' Yorkshire Post'Lord Malquist and Mr Moon takes place in a dream-London where everything is seen through a haze of despair, and cowboys and a coach-and-pair and a pet lion wander with innumerable others through the plot, giving it a kind of child-like surrealism. It manages to be sad without being sentimental, and to give its fantasies a wit and exactness that make them fruitful and rewarding.' Sunday Telegraph

BREH UTÓPIE (CESTA. STROSKOTANIE. ZÁCHRANA.) The Coast of Utopia (Voyage. Shipwreck. Salvage.) ŤAŽKÝ PROBLÉM The Hard Problem ARKÁDIA Arcadia Preložili Zuzana Vajdičková (Breh utópie, Ťažký problém) a Dana Silbiger-Sliuková (Arkádia). Prvé slovenské vydanie divadelných hier svetoznámeho dramatika Toma Stopparda predstavuje prierez jeho tvorbou v prekladoch Zuzany Vajdičkovej a Dany Silbiger Sliukovej. Zbierka obsahuje rozsiahlu trilógiu o osudoch historických osobností Breh utópie, divadelnú hru Arkádia, známu tiež z uvedenia v Slovenskom národnom divadle v réžii Romana Poláka, a divadelnú hru Ťažký problém o otázkach vedomia a subjektivity. „Stoppard od svojich začiatkov, keď ho kritika na základe hry Rosencrantz a Guildenstern sú mŕtvi, ktorou prerazil a ktorou sa natrvalo etabloval ako stálica nielen britskej divadelnej scény, zaradila medzi nástupcov Becketta a absurdistov a súčasne označila za následníka Shawa a jeho salónnej konverzačnej drámy, prešiel prerodom na spoločensky a ľudsky angažovaného dramatika so záujmom o filozofiu a históriu a miestami až s čechovovskou poetikou, ktorý však nestratil svoj typický nadhľad a zmysel pre humor. Hoci svojím intelektuálnym prístupom môžu jeho hry na prvý pohľad pôsobiť príliš sofistikovane až neprístupne, z jeho ,zmesi myšlienky a citu, usporiadaného intelektu a chaosu života sála úžasné divadelné teplo´ (Brantley, 2006).“ (Zuzana Vajdičková Od absurdity k chaosu)

Dvacet let po vydání výboru Tom Stoppard: Hry (2002), který obsahoval do té doby nejznámější tituly tohoto světoznámého dramatika českého původu (*1937, Zlín), vychází v Institutu umění – Divadelním ústavu druhý svazek jeho her. Ten spolu s připravovaným svazkem třetím, který představí bohatý svět dramatikových pozdějších děl, završí české vydání kompletní Stoppardovy původní tvorby psané pro divadlo.Hry II zahrnují texty napsané a uvedené do roku 1989. Od Stoppardova raného díla Volný jako pták přes intelektuálně hravé až bláznivé komedie Podle Magritta a Špinavé prádlo a Nová země se přesuneme ke hrám, jež jsou odrazem dramatikova zájmu o existenciální rozměr rozděleného světa studené války – Skokani, EGHDF, Noc a den a Dvojitý agent. Ani v nich však nepostrádáme Stoppardův smysl pro absurdno (ve svých počátcích býval – spíše mylně – k absurdním dramatikům přiřazován) a slovní gagy, obdivuhodnou lehkost, s jakou dokáže v rozměru divadelního představení zasvětit diváky do nejsložitějších problémů soudobého světa i (jako například v Umělci sestupujícím ze schodů) dělat si legraci z umění 20. století. Ve hrách Noc a den a Dvojitý agent se navíc v jeho dramatice začínají prosazovat silné ženské postavy a s nimi emocionalita, kterou rané Stoppardovy hry zdánlivě popíraly.

Bouřlivá plavba (1984) je volnou adaptací komedie Hra na zámku (Játék a kastélyban, 1926) maďarského dramatika Ference Molnára (1878–1952). Ocitáme se na palubě zaoceánského parníku Italský zámek, plujícího do New Yorku, kde má skupinka divadelníků (dva dramatici, herec, herečka a hudební skladatel) za několik dní představit stále nedopsanou hru. Přípravy na premiéru však naruší milostný propletenec mezi herečkou, hercem a skladatelem a pokus jednoho z dramatiků ho elegantně rozplést ještě více zkomplikuje situaci. Mistrně vystavěná zápletka a brilantní dialogy, láskyplně si utahující z operetních klišé i ze samotného divadelního světa, zařazují Bouřlivou plavbu k nejzábavnějším Stoppardovým dílům.

Hra, která nastartovala hvězdnou kariéru nejslavnějšího žijícího dramatika. Východiskem je vtipný shakespearovský apokryf. Stoppard nahlíží věhlasný Hamletův příběh skrze dvě původně vedlejší postavy, královy špehy Rosenkrantze a Guildensterna. Děj je opřen o dokonalou znalost originálu, který se v klíčových momentech do příběhu obou hrdinů vlévá a určuje jeho směr. Formální inspirací bylo Stoppardovi absurdní drama, v té době zažívající své nejslavnější období. I zde je tedy děj pokřiven do výrazné absurdní grotesky plné bizarních situací, vtipů a narážek. Bytostný intelektuál Stoppard se v nich často opírá o hrátky s matematickou statistikou, jejímž úhlem postavy nahlíží podivuhodnou nepravděpodobnost svých peripetií. Osud obou postav ovšem zároveň zachycuje téma obyčejných lidí, kteří jsou proti své vůli strženi a usmýkáni proudem dějin, aniž by jim byla vůbec dána možnost pochopit, co a proč se kolem nich děje, jakou roli v tom hrají a jestli vůbec stojí na správné straně.

Londýnský dramatik Will Shakespeare má napsat novou hru a nutně potřebuje inspiraci. Tu nachází ve chvíli, když se nečekaně setká s půvabnou Lady Violou, která tolik miluje divadlo, že se vydává za muže, aby si mohla zahrát. Z lásky na první pohled se rozhoří osudový vztah, do něhož se zaplete i sama královna Alžběta I., a vznikne hra Romeo a Julie, která má obrovský úspěch. Milenci se však musí rozejít, neboť Viola je proti své vůli provdána a Will už je ženatý. Dokonale rozehraný, důmyslný a vtipný příběh těží i z dalších Shakespearových děl...

Překlad dvou her britského dramatika českého původu. Titulní hra se odehrává v Praze a vypráví příběh pana Andersona, profesora etiky na Cambridge, na víkendové návštěvě filozofického kolokvia. Exilové vydání. Obálku s použitím muchláže Jiřího Koláře navrhla Barbora Munzarová.