Plus, the playwright says rumors of his retirement are greatly exaggerated.
Tom Stoppardisn’t a fan of putting himself into his work.
“I don’t much like doing it.
Japhet Balaban (Otto) and Eden Epstein (Hermine) in ‘Leopoldstadt’.Joan Marcus
I don’t really do it.
I write about what I’m thinking.
But I don’t write about what I’m living.
Tom Stoppard.Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images
Still, Stoppard doesn’t want anyone to view the play as autobiography.
“It doesn’t involve my real parents or siblings or anything like that,” he says.
He’s optimistic thatLeopoldstadtwon’t be his swan song.
The cast of ‘Leopoldstadt’ on Broadway.Joan Marcus
When did you first get the idea to write a play about a Jewish family spanning so many decades?
Theater is a storytelling art form.
And there’s a character in the play who comes to England when he’s eight.
And when he’s a young man, he comes back to Vienna.
He says a few things which speak for me.
I thought the second half of the play would be much more directly about my experience.
My mother didn’t like looking back.
We never talked about the fact that we were Jewish refugees.
I knew I had some Jewish blood in me, but she made nothing of it.
Gradually, I began to understand this was something I could be writing about.
I wasn’t actually at all interested in that.
I did research my own family quite independently a few years earlier.
But I wasn’t interested in using information about my Czech family for my play.
It’s a large enterprise now.
Would you say this is your most personal play?
Yes, I would.
How did you choose the five specific years each act of the play would occur across?
Did you try out different ones or think about going past 1955?
I didn’t know how far past 1955 I would get.
When I was writing it, I didn’t even know where it would stop.
The play had two London existences interrupted by COVID.
And the first time we did the play, we did it with an intermission.
And the second time we did the play, we did it without the intermission.
And I much preferred it, and I think everybody preferred it.
So in New York, we are playing it without an intermission.
The play has several sections.
And at the time, I wrote 1938 before I’d written 1924.
I’ve never actually written out of chronological order before.
With a play one has to have an eye on the clock.
And as has happened with me in the past, I realized that it was later than I thought.
I had to find a way to bring things to a conclusion.
As you said, this is a massive ensemble of 38 people.
Were you surprised when you were writing that it turned out that way?
Or was it just you had the freedom to do it so you didn’t think about it?
It was the latter.
I had the freedom to do it, and I didn’t know quite where I was going.
I was in a very lucky position of just reaching for what I needed at any given time.
I was aware that actors will be playing more than one part.
You could did it with 25 say.
You could just make the coat any fit that you want.
It’s a great feeling, but I don’t want to do it again.
I’d like to write a play with just one conversation.
But on this occasion, it was a liberating privilege to know that I could write about generations.
Patrick Marber, who directed the play in London is directing it again in New York.
Particularly when a play is new, the relationship between director and playwright is very important.
What made him the right collaborator for you, and would you like that continue?
As you probably know, Patrick is also a playwright.
He did it beautifully with great flair and wit.
I never thought for a moment that I’d want to look for another director.
As for the future, I don’t know.
I like to believe that I’ll write another play before I fall over.
Why do those topics fascinate you?
And how did you bring that to bear here?
I can use the knowledge I have, which is definitely not deep knowledge, to construct stories.
I know enough to construct a story.
But in a theater seminar, I can go on for minutes on end as though I know everything.
Did writingLeopoldstadthelp you draw any new conclusions about your past or your family’s history?
I’m trying to answer this and be honest with myself and with you.
Which, in some respects, is a very tragic history.
You develop a way of examining these things as an artist, rather than as a moralist.
Or as a politician or polemicist.
Do you think theater has changed radically over the course of your career?
I’m sure it must have done.
Do you feel optimistic about the future of the theater?
I have to be because it’s survived its dangers.
They want to have their plays performed live.
And that’s some feeling in society and individual humans which goes back thousands of years.
Hard to kill, long may it survive.
I hope it’s not the case.
But I didn’t make it.
But I’ll try and get better.
Whether or not it’s your last play, what do you hope your legacy is as a playwright?
Well, I think of theater as being fundamentally recreational.
Obviously, there’s theater which can eviscerate people, disturb their emotions, and so on.
It’s not work, it’s recreation.
Leopoldstadtopens at the Longacre Theatre on Oct. 2.
