Tom Stoppard

Tom Stoppard 1937-, English playwright, b. Zlín, Czechoslovakia (now in the Czech Republic), as Tomas Straussler. During his childhood he and his family moved to Singapore, later (1946) settling in Bristol, England, where he became a journalist. In 1960 he moved to London, where he became a theater critic and wrote radio plays. He first gained prominence with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1967), a witty drama about peripheral characters in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Stoppard is noted for his idiosyncratic style, artful and complex construction, deft parody, profound intellectuality, wide-ranging knowledge, and ability to find significance in wordplay and bizarre juxtapositions of language and character. In Travesties (1974), for example, James Joyce , Lenin , and Tristan Tzara collaborate on a production of Oscar Wilde 's play The Importance of Being Earnest.

Many critics consider his Jumpers (1973), a play that includes gymnastics, murder, song, dance, and ethical discussion, and Arcadia (1993), a drama that takes place in both 1809 and the early 1990s and is centered on a 19th-century mathematical prodigy and a 20th-century literary scholar, his finest works. Stoppard's other plays include The Real Inspector Hound (1968); Dirty Linen (1976); The Real Thing (1982); Hapgood (1988); Indian Ink (1995); The Invention of Love (1997); and Rock 'n' Roll (2006). One of his most complex and acclaimed later works, the trilogy The Coast of Utopia (2002), explores the roots of the Russian Revolution via six late 19th-century intellectuals and their associates and spans 35 years.

Stoppard is also a skilled screenwriter; he was a main scriptwriter for Brazil (1985) and Empire of the Sun (1987), and won particular acclaim for his Shakespeare in Love (1998, with Marc Norman). He has also has written for television, and is the author of a novel, Lord Malaquist and Mr. Moon (1966), and short stories.

Bibliography: See P. Delaney, ed., Tom Stoppard in Conversation (1994) and M. Gussow, Conversations with Stoppard (1995, rev. ed. 2003); biography by I. Nadel (2001); studies by R. Hayman (1977), V. L. Cahn (1979), J. Hunter (1982); T. R. Whitaker (1983), M. Page (1986), S. Rusinko (1986), M. Billington (1987), J. Harty, ed. (1988), A. Jenkins (1987, 1990), K. E. Kelly (1991), R. A. Andretta (1992), T. Hodgson (2001); J. Fleming (2001), J. Hunter (1982, 2005), and H. Bloom, ed. (rev. ed. 2003); K. E. Kelly, ed., Cambridge Companion to Tom Stoppard (2001).

Stoppard, Tom (1937– ) English dramatist, b. Thomas Straussler. His reputation was established with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1966). Plays such as The Real Inspector Hound (1968) and Jumpers (1972) confirmed his ability to combine philosophical speculation with humour. Stoppard wrote plays for radio (Artist Descending a Staircase, 1973) and television (Professional Foul, 1977). Other plays include Arcadia (1993) and The Invention of Love (1997). Stoppard won an Academy Award for best screenplay for Shakespeare in Love (1998).

Stoppard, Tom [né Thomas Straussler] (b. 1937), playwright. Perhaps the most brilliant (if not widely accessible) modern English playwright, he was first represented on Broadway by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1967). His later works to reach New York included Jumpers (1974), Travesties (1976), Dirty Linen and New‐Found‐Land (1977), Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (1979), Night and Day (1980), The Real Thing (1984), Artist Descending a Staircase (1989), Hapgood (1995), Arcadia (1994), The Invention of Love (2001), and Indian Ink (2003). Several of his other plays have been popular with little theatres and elsewhere, although they have been denied the benefit of Broadway's approval. His best plays show a marked influence of the theatre of the absurd but, unlike most examples of the school, also manifest a traditional theatrical construction, superior character development, and gymnastic, witty dialogue. Biography: Tom Stoppard: A Life, Ira Nadel, 2002.