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The Real Inspector Hound

Tom Stoppard may be regarded as one of the most intellectual dramatists of contemporary theatre. No playwright has been as successful as Tom Stoppard in creating what have been termed “serious comedies” — funny plays that deal with important ideas. His efforts have been recognized and rewarded with many awards for playwriting, including four Tonys on Broadway. He has received quite a number of honorary degrees and a knighthood for his contribution to theatre by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997.

ABOUT

The then Tom Sträussler and his elder brother Petr en route to Singapore in 1939 to escape the Nazis - Tom Stoppard Family Collection

Stoppard was born Tom Sträussler in Zlìn, Czechoslovakia on July 3, 1937. When he was two years old, his family fled from the Nazis to Singapore. Before the Japanese occupation of Singapore, Stoppard, his brother, and their mother fled to India. Stoppard’s father remained in Singapore as a British army volunteer. In 1942, his father was killed after boarding the last convoy of British ships out of Singapore. A day out from the harbor, his vessel took a direct hit from a Japanese bomber and sank with no survivors. Stoppard, his brother and his mother lived in India for the duration of the war and then moved to England in 1946. There she married Major Kenneth Stoppard of the British Army. Tom assumed his stepfather’s surname.

Tom Stoppard’s earliest writing was as a newspaper journalist after he quit school at the age of seventeen. He began writing his first plays in the 1960s with A Walk on the Water and won his first critical acclaim with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in 1965. Stoppard’s most prominent plays include Jumpers, Travesties, Night and Day, The Real Thing, Arcadia, The Invention of Love, and The Coast of Utopia.

LATEST WORK

Described as one of Stoppard’s most personal plays, Leopoldstadt opened in London’s West End to critical acclaim on January 25, 2020. A planned extension due to demand was curtailed due to the pandemic seven weeks later. In late 2021, the play returned for a 12-week engagement and received the Olivier Award for Best New Play. Announced June 7, 2022, Leopoldstadt will play a limited Broadway engagement this fall, with performances at Broadway’s Longacre Theatre in September 2022.

SCREENWRITING

Stoppard’s collaborative work on screenplays include Brazil (1985), Empire of the Sun (1987), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), The Russia House (1990), Billy Bathgate (1991), Shakespeare in Love (1998), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Enigma (2001), and Anna Karenina (2012). Uncredited revisions of screenplays by other authors include Always, Chaplin, Medicine Man, and Schindler’s List.

CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE

Stoppard is considered to be a master of comic invention, visual humor, and remarkably witty wordplay. He uses his considerable skills to investigate philosophical questions. The key to Stoppard’s work, both formally and intellectually, lies in the idea of collision. His delight in the juxtaposition of, or collision between, two different worlds is a constant throughout his career. He once told a New York Times interviewer, “I write plays because writing dialogue is the only respectable way of contradicting myself.”

“Stoppardian” became a term describing works using wit and comedy while addressing philosophical concepts. Stoppard’s later works have sought greater inter-personal depths, while maintaining their intellectual playfulness. Stoppard acknowledges that around 1982 he moved away from the “argumentative” works and more towards plays of the heart, as he became “less shy” about emotional openness.

AWARDS

OLIVIER AWARD (UK)

2020 Best New Play, LEOPOLDSTADT

DRAMA DESK AWARD (US)

2007 Outstanding Play, THE COAST OF UTOPIA

NEW YORK DRAMA CRITICS’ CIRCLE (US)

2007 Best Play, THE COAST OF UTOPIA

2001 Best Play, THE INVENTION OF LOVE

1995 Best Play, ARCADIA

1984 Best Play, THE REAL THING

1976 Best Play, TRAVESTIES

1968 Best Play, ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD

TONY AWARD (US)

2007 Best Play, THE COAST OF UTOPIA

1984 Best Play, THE REAL THING

1976 Best Play, TRAVESTIES

1968 Best Play, ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD

ACADEMY AWARD (US)

1998 Best Original Screenplay, SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE

EVENING STANDARD AWARD (UK)

1997 Best Play, THE INVENTION OF LOVE

1993 Best Play, ARCADIA

1982 Best Play, THE REAL THING

1978 Best Play, NIGHT AND DAY

1974 Best Comedy, TRAVESTIES

1972 Best Play, JUMPERS

A Retrospective

1977 - 2020

Over the course of Main Street Theater’s 46 seasons, we have produced 16 plays of Tom Stoppard’s, starting in1977 through our current production of The Real Inspector Hound. MST has always been a champion of Stoppard’s work, and our audiences have always clamored for more Stoppard. His highly intelligent and passionate writing combined with his marvelous characters have always drawn us to his plays. MST has produced several his plays more than once, confirming that there’s really no such thing as too much Stoppard at MST.

The Real Inspector Hound 1981/1982 & 1982/1983

Travesties 1977/1978

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead 1980/1981

The Real Inspector Hound 1981/1982

The Real Inspector Hound 1982/1983

Jumpers 1984/1985

The Real Thing 1986/1987

Rough Crossing 1992/1993

Arcadia 1996/1997

Hapgood 1997/1998

Indian Ink 1999/2000

Night and Day 2000/2001

On the Razzle 2004/2005

Arcadia 2009/2010

The Coast of Utopia: Voyage 2011/2012

The Coast of Utopia: Shipwreck 2011/2012

The Coast of Utopia: Salvage 2011/2012

The Real Thing 2013/2014

The Hard Problem 2019/2020

Rough Crossing 1992/1993
Arcadia 1996/1997
Hapgood 1997/1998
Night and Day 2000/2001
On the Razzle 2004/2005

MST remains one of only a handful of theaters in the world to produce all 3 plays of Stoppard’s epic trilogy, The Coast of Utopia.

The Coast of Utopia 2011/2012
The Real Thing 2013/2014
The Hard Problem 2019/2020
Created By
Dwight Clark
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