9 essential plays by Tom Stoppard

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Tom Stoppard, frequently hailed as the greatest British playwright of this generation, had both a remarkable life and a remarkable career.Born in Czechoslovakia in 1937, his family fled to Singapore when the Nazis invaded.

When Japan threatened their new home, his mother took him and his brother to India.His father stayed behind in Singapore but died when the ship he was aboard was sunk.

His mother later married a British officer and the family relocated to England, where young Stoppard took his stepfather’s surname and “put on Englishness like a coat,” he later said.Stoppard quickly became known for his clever, witty and intellectually curious work, earning three Olivier Awards, five Tony Awards and an Oscar (for “Shakespeare in Love”).He was even knighted in 1997 by Queen Elizabeth II for his contributions to theater.Starting with “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” in 1966, through his final full-length play “Leopoldstadt” in 2020, Stoppard crafted a body of work that would be the envy of most countries, let alone one writer.

World & Nation British playwright Tom Stoppard, a major figure of contemporary theater who won an Academy Award for the screenplay for 1998’s ‘Shakespeare in Love,’ has died.Below are some of Stoppard most important plays, with observations from Times critics:After working as a journalist, Stoppard had a breakthrough when this absurdist romp debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe.Times theater critic Charles McNulty reviewed a 2013 production at the Old Globe’s Shakespeare Festival in San Diego, describing it as a “metapharcical romp (to coin a genre), in which ‘Hamlet’ is glimpsed through the oblique perspective of the prince’s twin buddies, sent to spy on him by Gertrude and Claudius in that Elsinore castle of murder, adultery and occult intrigue.

… Stoppard’s fertile wit keeps this three-act drama pulsing along...