It is Tom Stoppard's very special skill as the master comedian of ideas in the modern theater to create brilliant, biting humor out of serious concerns. Virtually assaulting the audience with a cascade of words and a conspicuous display of intellect, Stoppard, in "Every Good Boy Deserves Favor," contrasts the circumstances of a political prisoner and a mental patient in a Soviet insane asylum, to question the difference, if any, between free will and the freedom to conform. The situation, in which the mental patient "hears" an orchestra, is both chilling and funny as we are introduced to two men who happen to share the same name, are in carcerated in the same cell, and are attended by the same doctor.

British playwright Tom Stoppard in his own words

Companion to the work of playwright Tom Stoppard who also co-authored screenplay of Shakespeare in Love.

Despite their box-office success, Tom Stoppard's plays have sometimes aroused academic hostility, his critics accusing Stoppard of cold intellectualism or frivolous showmanship. The purpose of this study is to examine the special problem of Stoppard's use of humor and games in conveying serious ideas. As an actor and director, Anthony Jenkins is concerned not just with the literary merit of Stoppard's plays, but also with the way they are written and shaped by the formal conventions particular to the media of stage, radio, and television. This book studies the stage space of each play as well as the actor's pauses and inner emotions. As a lecturer on drama, Jenkins follows Stoppard's career chronologically so that the radio and television plays are woven in with, and support various claims concerning, the major stage works. Unlike similar critical analyses of Stoppard's theater, this volume discusses all the latest plays, including The Real Thing, The Dog It Was That Died, and Squaring the Circle.

Tom Stoppard is widely considered to be one of the most important dramatists of contemporary theatre. In this Introduction, William Demastes provides an accessible overview of Stoppard's life and work, exploring all the complexity and variety that makes his drama so unique. Illustrated with images from a diverse range of Stoppard productions, the book provides clear evaluations of his major works, including Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Travesties, Arcadia and The Coast of Utopia, to provide the most up-to-date assessment available. Detailed chapters situate each play in the context of its sources, which include Shakespeare and contemporary existential thought, espionage, quantum physics, chaos theory, romanticism, landscape design, nineteenth-century European intellectual thought and European totalitarianism. The book also includes a section on Stoppard's Academy Award-winning film Shakespeare in Love.

This collection surveys madness in drama. It includes articles on 'The Duchess of Malfi'; virginity and hysteria in 'The Changeling'; the confined spectacle of madness in Beys's 'The Illustrious Madmen'; The male gaze in 'Woyzeck' - representing Marie and madness; and other drama examples.