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15 September 2021 · Follow on Stagedoor

“Nestled within the Russian doll construction of Tom Stoppard’s latest, and possibly final play, Leopoldstadt, is Leo, the son and grandson of a Viennese Jewish family. A serious, weighty and enjoyable family saga, it charts the family’s history from turn of the century Vienna to 1955. Leo was born Leo Rosenbaum in Vienna but takes his English stepfather’s name-- just as Stoppard did when his widowed mother married Major Kenneth Stoppard in India in 1945-- and becomes Leo Chamberlain, a callow young English comic writer of 25 who knows little about his past. Leo could perhaps be seen as a rueful portrait of the artist as a young man. Stoppard’s best plays are always those where he risks revealing himself and this story of Jewish identity and heritage is one of his best and deserves to be welcomed back into the West End.”

Overview

The Olivier Award-winning new 'masterwork' (Evening Standard) by Tom Stoppard opened to overwhelming critical acclaim in early 2020, playing seven weeks of sold-out performances, before being temporarily shut down. Since then, the grand Viennese apartment on Wyndham's stage has waited for a great reawakening, as audiences eagerly anticipate the return of Leopoldstadt. Now, Stoppard’s ‘unforgettable play from the heart’ (The Telegraph) re-opens in the West End for 12 weeks only!

At the beginning of the 20th Century, Leopoldstadt was the old, crowded Jewish quarter of Vienna. But Hermann Merz, a manufacturer and baptised Jew married to Catholic Gretl, has moved up in the world. Gathered in the Merz apartment in a fashionable part of the city, Hermann's extended family are at the heart of Tom Stoppard's epic yet intimate drama. By the time we have taken leave of them, Austria has passed through the convulsions of war, revolution, impoverishment, annexation by Nazi Germany and - for Austrian Jews - the Holocaust in which 65,000 of them were murdered. It is for the survivors to pass on a story which hasn't ended yet.

A 'masterpiece' (Independent) directed by Patrick Marber, Leopoldstadt is Tom Stoppard's most humane and heart-breaking play. Don't miss it.

Age recommendation: 12+

Critic reviews

It is personal and epic; it is triumphant and elegiac; it is massive and yet streamlined

Exeunt

Tense, touching and timely

· Everything Theatre

This is a powerful, important new play from one of our greatest living playwrights that, should it prove to be his swansong, means he has gone out on a significant high, even as he dramatises a low point on world history

· London Theatre

Tom Stoppard’s shiveringly sensual journey through the terrible 20th century is a masterpiece

· The Independent

A fantastically executed, moving play about identity, family and memory

· Londonist

With an immense accumulative power that leaves audiences awed and tearful

· Broadway World

The play ends with a reckoning with history that is surely Stoppard's own, in keeping with a playwright only made aware of his Jewish ancestry in later life

· The Arts Desk

Tom Stoppard’s new play Leopoldstadt is both epic and intimate

· Financial Times

Tom Stoppard’s alleged final play sees him go out on an almighty high, in a weighty and moving drama about the rise and fall of Vienna’s Jewish population

· Time Out

Tom Stoppard delivers an unforgettable (perhaps final) play from the heart

· The Telegraph

Tom Stoppard's new masterwork is an early contender for play of the year

· Evening Standard

It's an evening that leaves many people in tears. It left me profoundly moved but also full of thought and understanding

· WhatsOnStage

Stately and supremely moving new work from the country’s greatest living playwright

· The Stage

Stoppard’s exploration of his religious and ethnic roots make for a thought-provoking piece

· The Upcoming

Moments of poignancy cannot save Tom Stoppard epic