Vienna during first half of the 20th century from 1899 to 1955
Leopoldstadt is a dramatic stage play written by British playwright Sir Tom Stoppard. The original production premiered on 25 January 2020 at Wyndham's Theatre in London's West End. The play is set among the wealthy Jewish community in Vienna,[1] in the first half of the 20th century and follows the lives of "a prosperous Jewish family who had fled the pogroms in the East".[2]
According to Stoppard, the play "took a year to write, but the gestation was much longer. Quite a lot of it is personal to me, but I made it about a Viennese family so that it wouldn't seem to be about me." All four of Stoppard's grandparents were Jews murdered by Nazis in concentration camps.[3] On 2 October 2022, the New York production opened on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre with Marber directing.[4]
A National Theatre Live recording was screened in over 380[5] cinemas on 27 January (Holocaust Memorial Day), 2022 and topped that night's UK and Ireland box office.[6] The play's second preview performance had also taken place on Holocaust Memorial Day, in 2020, when each audience member was given a memorial candle as they left the theatre.[7]
Background
Patrick Marber, who worked with Stoppard on the revival of Travesties in London and New York, commented that "It's a big company play which as a director is incredibly exciting to do. It's got the lot."[8] During rehearsals he "instituted a fabulous regime of lectures" given by cast members, allotting each a subject relevant to the play's themes to investigate.[9]
Production history
West End (2020–2021)
Leopoldstadt's original run at Wyndham's—which had no seat unsold at any performance—was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with the production temporarily shut down on 16 March 2020. On 25 October 2020 Leopoldstadt won the Olivier Award for Best New Play,[10] and Adrian Scarborough won for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.[11] After Covid restrictions were lifted in England the play re-opened and ran from 7 August to 30 October 2021.[12]
Stoppard told BBC Radio 4 that Leopoldstadt may be his last play[13]—though in October 2021 he acknowledged, in a CNN interview with Christiane Amanpour, that he was reconsidering: "I'm a playwright, by more than, as it were, labeling. I feel like somebody who writes plays while they're still alive."[14]
The Wyndham's production's set design was by Richard Hudson, costumes by Brigitte Reiffenstuel, lighting by Neil Austin, sound and original music by Adam Cork and movement by EJ Boyle. Leopoldstadt is the sixth collaboration between Sonia Friedman Productions and Stoppard.[15] The 41 actors performing in the 2020 production were cast by Amy Ball (adults) and Verity Naughton (children). The initial cast list[16] was announced on 25 October 2019[17] and included Adrian Scarborough, Alexis Zegerman, Luke Thallon and Stoppard's son, Ed.[9]
Broadway (2022–2023)
The play had its North American premiere on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre when it started previews on 14 September 2022 and opened on 2 October.[18][19] Its originally intended North American premiere was to have taken place at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto,[20] for a seven-week engagement with the London cast, however it was announced that the run would no longer go ahead because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The theatre's owner, David Mirvish, said, "I'm not giving up on Leopoldstadt. I'm determined to present this magnificent play in Toronto sometime in the future when it is safe to do so."[21] Originally scheduled to run through March 2023, the Broadway run was extended to July 2023.[22] The production played its final performance on July 2, 2023.[23]
John Malkovich staged the first Latvian language production of the play at Dailes Theatre which opened on 15 September 2023 in Riga, Latvia. Malkovich, having previously acted on the same stage, was approached by the theater's director who inquired about his interest in directing a play. "We spoke about a number of plays, but he was most excited about doing Leopoldstadt. And since I'm someone who has spent a lot of time in Vienna, have worked there many times, and have spent a good deal of time reading and experiencing Viennese history and culture, it was quite a natural thing for me to do," Malkovich stated.[27] On this production he worked with the Dailes Theatre repertoire company, but employed his own frequent collaborators Pierre-François Limbosch & Birgit Hutter in the art department.
The play was staged in Israel at the Habima Theater in Tel Aviv, where it premiered on April 1, 2023. The translation belonged to Dori Parnes and the stage director was Ilan Ronen.
After the Broadway production was extended, Joshua Malina took over the role of Hermann Merz from March 2023 to July 2023.[28][29][30]
Synopsis
Leopoldstadt frames the narrative of a Jewish family in Vienna over a period of some 50 years. The main set is the drawing room of a wealthy family. There are five acts occurring in the years 1899, 1900, 1924, 1938 and 1955.
1899: the family gathers for Christmas, discussing ideas ranging from Theodore Herzl'sZionism to Jewish and Viennese arts and culture. Family members have integrated well with Viennese society, and enjoy their rights and civil liberties. Hanna asks Gretl to chaperone her on a date with a non-Jewish cavalry officer, Fritz. Hermann’s nephew, Pauli, expresses an interest in becoming a soldier.
1900: Gretl and Fritz strike up an affair, which Gretl eventually ends. Hermann gains knowledge of this, but ultimately dismisses Gretl's infidelity. The family gather for Passover Seder, celebrating the birth of Hermann’s niece, Nellie.
1924: Jacob, the son of Hermann and Gretl, fought in World War I alongside Pauli. Pauli was killed in battle; Jacob survived but lost an eye and has one useless arm. The family gather for a bris ceremony. This act explores the impacts of the Great War and the rise of Bolshevism. Fearing for the worst, Hermann meets with a banker to discuss transferring the family business to Jacob.
1938: the year of Anschluss. The family are gathered, with the company of a British journalist who is engaged to one of the girls in the family. The family discuss escape plans, including visas to England. The Nazis enter the property, harassing the family and seizing their belongings. The family's home is requisitioned by the Nazis and the family must leave to be transported the following day. Hermann is forced to sign the family business away to the Nazis, but Jacob retains legal ownership. It is revealed that Jacob is the legal son of Gretl and Fritz; Hermann planned and acknowledged the affair so that Jacob would not face antisemitism since he would be legally recorded as a gentile.
1955: the survivors of the Holocaust gather in the family home. Only three family members survived: Leo, who successfully gained a British visa and assimilated into British culture; Rosa, who moved to New York before the Holocaust; and Nathan, who survived Auschwitz. Leo has no memory of his life in Vienna as a Jew; the family painfully recollect their memories and acknowledge their murdered family members.
Critical reception
The play has received critical acclaim. Theatre critic and journalist Dominic Cavendish wrote in The Telegraph, "So here it is. Tom Stoppard's last play. Very possibly. Britain's greatest living dramatist has said that Leopoldstadt is likely to be the end of the road – given his age (82) and how long it takes him to write. Almost every major work he has produced since he burst onto the scene with his Hamlet spin-off Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in 1966 has been met with high anticipation."[31]
Whilst Lloyd Evans wrote in The Spectator, "History will record Leopoldstadt as Tom Stoppard's Schindler's List. His brilliant tragic-comic play opens in the Jewish quarter of Vienna in 1899. We meet a family of intellectuals and businessmen who are celebrating their very first Christmas. (...) At press night, the critics were busy scribbling one-liners which are destined to reach the dictionary of quotations. 'Why do Jews have to choose between pushy and humble?' 'Today's modern is tomorrow's nostalgia: we missed Mahler when we heard Schoenberg.'"[32]
Greg Evans wrote in Deadline that with Leopoldstadt Stoppard delivered "a late career masterpiece." Evans added that "any summary of scenes and timeline descriptions of Leopoldstadt can't begin to convey the richness of Stoppard's work," noting that "mathematics, not surprisingly, comes into play, as it so often does with Stoppard, but so too does Zionism and modern art and so many other aspects of 20th Century political history that Leopoldstadt can at times seem like a right and proper companion piece to Ken Burns' wonderful The U.S. and the Holocaust documentary."[33]
Adaptations
A live performance of the play was recorded towards the end of its second run and was screened as a film in UK cinemas (and some international locations) on 27 January 2022 (Holocaust Memorial Day) through National Theatre Live.[34]
In 2023 Deadline reported that a television version of the play was in early discussions.[35]
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