It’s also the virtuosic way that he conjures the shifting cultural zeitgeist of Vienna in the first half of the 20th century through stylized conversation alone.Ĭarey Perloff, the former artistic director of San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater who has directed 11 productions of Stoppard plays, including several West Coast premieres, has written an invaluable book, “Pinter and Stoppard: A Director’s View” (Bloomsbury Methuen), which considers the Jewish identities of these English playwrights. It’s not just that the work mirrors aspects of his personal history. “Leopoldstadt” is a play that only Tom Stoppard could have written. The Oscar-winning screenplay he co-wrote for “Shakespeare in Love” translates to the screen this gift for turning erudition into high jinks. A quick study able to assimilate libraries of material on philosophy, science, history and mathematics, he has an uncanny knack for making the esoteric entertaining. Author of such modern classics as “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” “The Real Thing” and “Arcadia,” Stoppard is revered for his clever wordplay, inventive wit and breathtaking comic adventurousness.
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