
Leopoldstadt
3.8 (6) · New Writing, Contemporary Drama
A passionate drama of love, family and endurance
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Overview
Vienna in 1900 was the most vibrant city in Europe, humming with artistic and intellectual excitement and a genius for enjoying life. A tenth of the population were Jews. A generation earlier they had been granted full civil rights by the Emperor, Franz Josef. Consequently, hundreds of thousands had fled from the Pale and the pogroms in the East and many found sanctuary in the crowded tenements of the old Jewish quarter, Leopoldstadt.
Tom Stoppard’s new play, directed by Patrick Marber, is an intimate drama with an epic sweep; the story of a family who made good. “My grandfather wore a caftan,” says Hermann, a factory owner, “My father went to the opera in a top hat, and I have the singers to dinner.”
It was not to last. Half a century later, this family, like millions of others, has re-discovered what it means to be Jewish in the first half of the 20th century.
Critic reviews
Stately and supremely moving new work from the country’s greatest living playwright
Moments of poignancy cannot save Tom Stoppard epic
It's an evening that leaves many people in tears. It left me profoundly moved but also full of thought and understanding
Tom Stoppard's new masterwork is an early contender for play of the year
Tom Stoppard delivers an unforgettable (perhaps final) play from the heart
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
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
Tom Stoppard’s new play Leopoldstadt is both epic and intimate
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
With an immense accumulative power that leaves audiences awed and tearful
A fantastically executed, moving play about identity, family and memory
Stoppard’s exploration of his religious and ethnic roots make for a thought-provoking piece
It is personal and epic; it is triumphant and elegiac; it is massive and yet streamlined
Tom Stoppard’s shiveringly sensual journey through the terrible 20th century is a masterpiece
Creatives
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Date & time
2.30pm & 7.30pm