Tom stoppard, p.107
Tom Stoppard, page 107
packed with work: TSL, 24 April 1969, nd [September 1969]. The Engagement, NBC TV, 8 March 1970. For cricket, Nadel, 50.
run-up to the birth: Biblio, H 248, “Childbirth,” Vogue, HR OS Box 5, proofs 23 March 1971, published May 1971.
Miriam: MS, interviews HL, 8 April, 2 July, 17 September 2014, 8 January 2015. TS, interview HL, 28 June 2014.
After Barny’s birth: TS to PS, nd [autumn 1970], 31 December 1969. PS to James Crichton, Harbottle and Lewis, 2 October 1970, affidavit re. Mrs. Jose Stoppard.
large, expensive house: TS to PS, 14 April 1970, nd, “Fri/Sat” [summer 1970].
Looking back: TS, JE I, 7 December 1976.
opportunities: AS, interview HL, 31 May 2014; Corries, interview HL, 1 May 2015.
made his mind up: TS to PS, “Tuesday” [summer 1970].
divorced Miriam: HR 146.1, Divorce papers, MS and Peter Moore-Robinson, 2 October 1970.
Plans had rapidly: HR 146.1, payments to Jose. HR 146.1, Sale of River Thatch, 27 November 1970.
a statement about himself: TS to PS, nd, “Fri/Sat” [summer 1970].
The greatest difficulty: OS, interview HL, 18 August 2016. MS, interview HL, 2 July 2014; TS, interview HL, 28 June 2014. TS to “Mum and Dad,” 22 August [1970], PS archive; TS to PS, 8 September 1970.
Everything is really lovely: TSL, nd [summer 1970].
application for custody: TS to PS, nd, “Tuesday” [summer 1970]. TSL, nd [November 1970].
went in his favour: HR 39.5, Custody application outcome, 18 March 1971. Wordsmith, 156.
Jose’s version: OS, interview HL, 16 August 2016. JS, letter to MS, nd, JM archive.
“amethyst”: TS to PS, 14 September 1970, PS archive.
He was enjoying: TS to PS, 16 November 1970, “Tuesday” [autumn 1970], PS archive.
Orghast: See Jonathan Bate, Ted Hughes: The Unauthorised Life, Collins, 2015, 285–311; AS, Orghast at Persepolis, Eyre Methuen, 1972, and Wordsmith, 174–6. TS, “Commentary on Ted Hughes: Orghast,” Times Literary Supplement, 10 October 1971, Biblio, H 250. Nadel, 227–8, argues for Orghast as an influence on DOP and J. MS, interview HL, 8 April 2014. TS to JS [summer 1971], with thanks to OS.
divorced each other: HR 122.9, WDP, 1 February 1972. The presiding judge observed that it was the first case he had encountered in which one party, Mrs. Stoppard, got her decree under the old divorce law and where the other party got his decree under the new Matrimonial Proceedings and Property Act 1970, which had come into force the year before. Daily Mirror, 1 February 1972. HR 39.5, Decree nisi, 8 February 1972.
straight back to work: OS, interview HL, 18 August 2016. MJ, interview HL, 9 September 2014, HR 122.9, Profile of MS, “All Work and No Play Makes Miriam a Bright Girl,” Colin Barnes, 1975.
many letters: e.g. JS to TS, Sunday 8 May [1994], JM archive.
bits of journalism: HR 121.4, TS, Observer TV review, 31 May 1970. TS to PS, 16 November 1970; nd, “Tuesday” [autumn 1970].
“exaggerated respect”: HR 122.9, “Tom Stoppard Pops In on the Cast,” Jerry Tallmer, New York Post, 26 August 1972.
Fernleigh: TSL, nd [December 1972]. OS, interview HL, 16 August 2016. WS, interview HL, 10 December 2014.
described the last two years: HR 122.9, “Tom Stoppard Pops In on the Cast,” Jerry Tallmer, New York Post, 26 August 1972.
11. “Tom Stoppard Doesn’t Know”
“They never quite understand”: Janet Watts, “Tom Stoppard,” Guardian, 21 March 1973, in Delaney 1994, 49.
story, with variants: “Tom Stoppard Doesn’t Know,” BBC2, One Pair of Eyes, 7 July 1972, Gussow, 7. Delaney 1990, 162, n. 21, gives all versions, including Jon Bradshaw, “Tom Stoppard, Nonstop: Word Games with a Hit Playwright,” New York 10, 10 January 1977, and Janet Watts, “Tom Stoppard,” Guardian, 21 March 1973, 12. At Notre Dame University on 28 March 1971, TS says the story “made him write a particular play.”
“driving past Elsinore”: Transcript of Notre Dame Lecture, 28 March 1971. Delaney 1994, 32.
“Inter-Action”: Ed Berman, interview HL, 8 July 2015; TS, interview HL, 18 March 2015; TS, note to DOP, in Ten of the Best British Short Plays, ed. Ed Berman, Inter-Action in Print, 1979, 80; TS, Preface (1993), and note to DL (1976), Plays 1, vii, 74; Biblio, 48; Susan Croft, “Ed Berman,” www.unfinishedhistories.com; TS, “Yes, We Have No Banana,” Guardian, 10 December 1971; Billington 1987, 80; 2007, 167, 203. HR 36.1, 11 January 1970, Ed Berman thanked TS for agreeing to have his play done by Ambiance in April 1970. HR, GD papers, 8.3.
“event”: TS, Preface (1993), Plays 1, vii. TS, interview HL, 18 March 2015. TS, “The Event and the Text,” 1988, Delaney 1994, 204. TS, note to DOP, in Ten of the Best British Short Plays, 1979, 80–1. HR, GD papers, 8.3: TS notes it was called “an Opening Ceremony” because it was written for the opening of the Almost Free Theatre, Rupert Street, first performed on 7 December 1971.
opportunity to wrong-foot: TS, interview HL, 18 March 2015.
“My idea of theatre”: HR 84.15, TS Notebook, 16 November 1971.
rational intentions: TSL, nd [April 1972].
“When I encountered”: TS, interview Joost Kuurman, Dutch Quarterly Review, 1980, Biblio, 47.
“Surreal”: HR 1.2, first draft AM.
“nuts-and-bolts comedy”: Delaney 1994, 59. Nadel, 219, notes the debt to “The Menaced Assassin.”
nonsense plays: Ring Lardner, “I Gaspiri” (“The Upholsterers”), 1922.
incongruous opening scene: AM, in Plays 1.
Wittgenstein: HR 37.2, TS to AS, July 1968: “You should see me trying to work out integral calculus with one hand while following Wittgenstein through ‘Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus’ with the other.” Delaney 1994, 87.
“serious joke”: Arts Guardian, 10 December 1971. Delaney 1994, 87.
“language and logic”: Delaney 1994, 87.
“language games”: A. C. Grayling, Wittgenstein: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 1988, 2001, 17, 76, 78–9, 83–4, 94. John Campbell, “Wittgenstein on the Role of Experience in Understanding Language,” in Wittgenstein and the Philosophy of Mind, eds. Jonathan Ellis and Daniel Guevara, Oxford University Press, 2012, 64–6.
“thought-experiment”: See Hunter 2005, 55, 71, and for DOP also: Cambridge, 129–30; Jenkins, 101–4; Brassell, 235–40; Billington 1987, 80–1, 137.
told Ed Berman: Arts Guardian, 10 December 1971.
“a lot of language”: DOP, in Ed Berman, ed., Ten of the Best British Short Plays, Inter-Action in Print, 1979, 89, 93–4; TS, Introduction to DH, Plays 1, 1980, 142.
The (Fifteen-minute) Dogg’s Troupe Hamlet: Gussow, 37. HR 36.1, EB to TS, 27 January 1972. EB, interview HL, 8 July 2015. HR, GD papers, 8.3, Dogg’s Troupe Hamlet, Title page, 1976. “ ‘Cat will mew and DOGG will have his day.’ ” Copyright T. Stoppard and W. Shakespeare.” TS, Plays 1, 1980, 141. Biblio, 103.
The Goon Show: Delaney 1994, 11, 35.
“ ‘Boxing Day’ ”: JE I, TS archive, 28 December 1975.
“ ‘killed at Waterloo’ ”: Delaney 1994, 95, 223.
tremendously silly: Inter-Action film of Dogg’s Troupe Hamlet, 24 August 1976. Patrick Barlow, one of the actors, took the speeded-up Shakespeare idea on into the National Theatre of Brent. TS’s Fifteen-minute Hamlet was broadcast on Radio 4 on 1 July 2007.
Americanised version: HR 127.11, TS to Michael Nowak, Commons Theatre Chicago, 8 March 1985.
extremely successfully: HR 36.1, Michael Croft to TS, nd, on amazing box-office results from the two plays in February and March 1973.
three Stoppard shows: HR 18.6, Michael Billington on TS, Washington Post, 25 November 1978.
a “documentary”: “Tom Stoppard Doesn’t Know,” One Pair of Eyes, BBC2, 7 July 1972. Director Michael Houldey, with Geoff Hoyle and David Ryall (also in R&G and J) as the philosophy dons, Maurice Quick as the peacock man and David De Keyser as the interviewer. Biblio, 361, L 49. HR 100.7.
his 1971 lecture: Notre Dame University, 28 March 1971. RMDOO1 Archives, Notre Dame 1971: Joseph Raymond Collection, Photos 1970–1977. GRMD Collection, GRMD 1/47 Images: Sophomore Literary Festival, Tom Stoppard, 1971/0328.
resist categorisation: John Russell Taylor, “Our Changing Theatre,” Delaney 1994, 25; Gussow, 5–6.
these questions: HR 94.19, J script.
Michael Frayn: HR 36.1, Michael Frayn to TS, 21 May 1973.
in a lecture: TS, Weidenfeld Humanitas Lecture, Oxford University, 18 May 2016.
“familiar grammar”: RADIO, 89.
early notes: HR 84.15, notes, November 1969, for WATN?.
aired: HR 12.11, WATN?, first broadcast 28 January 1970 in two instalments for Radio 4 Schools Programmes: Dickon Reed, producer. Broadcast for Radio 3, 18 December 1970: Carleton Hobbs as Dobson, John Wood as Gale. Biblio, A9, L 32.
against his principles: RADIO, vii.
John Gale wrote: HR 36.1, John Gale to TS, 11 February 1970.
“Oh no”: RADIO, 105. Billington 1987, 74, Hayman 1977, 89, and Hunter 2005, 236, on the “emotional intensity” of WATN?.
Desolation: ADS, BBC Radio 3, 14 November 1972. With Stephen Murray, Rolf Lefebvre, Fiona Watson, Carleton Hobbs. Consortium: Jenkins, 105. All quotes from ADS from RADIO.
widely praised: HR 36.1, FP to TS on ADS, 21 September 1972, 18 April 1984.
claimed this argument: Delaney 1994, 37. TS, interview Richard Mayne, Radio 3, 10 November 1972.
play of deep feeling: ADS, 121–2, 116. ADS as stage play directed by Tim Luscombe at the King’s Head Theatre, transferred to the Duke of York’s theatre, then in 1989 played at the Helen Hayes Theater in New York, and frequently produced after that. Delaney 1994, 231–4.
“also a love story”: Delaney 1994, 36, 232–3.
12. Acrobatics
“What, in short”: J, 1986, 45. All J quotes from the 1986 edition unless otherwise stated. G, 151.
limits of reason: G, 151; J, 31. See Fleming 2001, 66–81, comparing G with J.
Stoppard suggested: Tim Corrie, interview HL, 1 May 2015.
admired Brecht: Biblio, H, 195, “Bits of Bert,” Scene, 14 September 1962.
Why did he: Frances Hill, “Quarter-Laughing Assurance,” Times Educational Supplement, 9 February 1973.
political parable: Bertolt Brecht, Life of Galileo, trans. John Willet, Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 1980, 2006, 47. Brecht’s play was written in exile in 1938–9, first performed in 1943, and first staged in English in 1947 by Joseph Losey, in a version by Brecht and Charles Laughton, who played Galileo.
Berliner Ensemble: Brecht, Life of Galileo, 44.
Galileo’s recantation: Brecht, Life of Galileo, 25, 131, 246, 256.
does keep close: Brecht, Life of Galileo, 88.
“love, war, and drama”: HR 34.4, AS, interview with TS, 1974.
“She might well”: G, 21.
Pope Urban VIII: G, 88.
most lyrical: G, 30.
with horror: Brecht, Life of Galileo, 155–6.
“Your Reverence”: G, 88–9.
they sound like Dotty: G, 18, 78. J, 65.
“I do not understand”: G, 40, 49. See Hunter 2005, 45.
“impossible equation”: “A Note on Galileo,” April 2003, G, 5–6.
who was lukewarm: HR 36.1, John Boorman to TS, 19 April 1971.
scathing letter: HR 36.1, TS to Peter Bart, Paramount, 18 May 1971.
London Planetarium: HR 85.1, Kine Weekly, 4 September 1971. Today’s Cinema, 17 August 1971. G, 5. HR 36.1, London Planetarium to TS, 12 December 1972. See Fleming 2001, 66–81, 269; Kirsten Shepherd-Barr, Science on Stage: From Doctor Faustus to Copenhagen, Princeton University Press, 2006. HR 36.1, Laurence Olivier to TS, 2 April 1973.
“The kind of research”: HR 34.4, AS, interview with TS, 1974. Billington 1987, 82.
single image: Gussow, 14. For “pyramid,” in interviews, also Frances Hill, “Quarter-Laughing Assurance,” Times Educational Supplement, 9 February 1973, and Delaney 1990, 38.
“a play about an idea”: Cambridge, 116; Delaney 1994, 157, 44, 86.
Inspector Bones: Who are these: J, 41.
Stoppard describes: Gussow, 14, 34, 107.
“which should occupy”: Hill, “Quarter-Laughing Assurance,” Times Educational Supplement, 9 February 1973; Gussow, 16.
G. E. Moore: J, 57, 58. HR 95.11, TS to Dorothy Moore, 20 February 1972. Mrs. Moore’s protest had been conveyed to TS by G. E. Moore’s biographer Paul Levy. George may also have been inspired by stories of the legendary eccentricities of the theologian and moral philosopher Donald MacKinnon. See Nadel, 558, n. 39.
His career: J, 26, 26, 41, 63, 54.
rhetorical monologue: J, 36, 57, 63. Nadel, 225, notes the Havel influence.
joke about George: But when: J, 17.
like Beckett: Hayman 1977, 103, on Beckett and Zeno. Clive James noted in 1975, picking up the Zeno reference: “Here and now in Stoppard is a time and place defined by an infinite number of converging vectors each heading towards it at the speed of light and steadily slowing down to nothing before passing through it and speeding up again.” “Count Zeno Splits the Infinitive,” Encounter, November 1975.
“logically inferred”: J, 30, 62.
“What is honour”: J, 45.
“And yet I tell you”: J, 62.
Stoppard usually says: Gussow, 5, 35.
“Are you religious?”: PR 44, Delaney 1994, 188.
“Things and actions”: J, 31–2.
Stoppard is not: Gussow, 16: “Occasionally, I hardly had to change a thing.”
B. F. Skinner: Gussow, 8.
“moral judgments”: Fleming 2001, 88.
“attacking a dodo”: PR 43, Delaney 1994, 187.
powerfully influenced: A. C. Grayling, Wittgenstein: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 1996, 67–8. Ben Rogers, Introduction, A. J. Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic, 1936, Penguin, 2001, 9–10, 26.
a main source: Freddie Ayer noted the resemblance, with amusement, reviewed J for the Sunday Times, and became an acquaintance, exchanging philosophical ideas with TS: “Indeed, I think I agree with Kant that the notion of a cause outside time is unintelligible,” etc. HR 36.1, Ayer to TS, 8 May 1972; Mark Amory, “The Joke’s the Thing,” Sunday Times, 9 June 1974. Baker 2013, 85, Ayer’s review of J.
Ayer argued: Language, Truth and Logic, Penguin, 2001, 51, 224, 235.
George explains: J, 39. Fleming 2001, 88.
George’s comment: J, 38–9.
“George has the right ideas”: PR 44, Delaney 1994, 188.
Penelope: HR, 66.13, TS note for Another Moon Called Earth, June 1967.
put it this way: FK, interview HL, 7 January 2015.
awkwardly tender: J, 25, 31, 32.
“Forget Yesterday”: J, 1972, 90.
grief and love: TS, interview HL, 18 March 2015.
Apollo 16: J, 14. Michael Hallifax, memo to Olivier, Tynan et al., 21 April 1972, National Theatre, with thanks to Daniel Rosenthal.
chat shows: e.g. The Eamonn Andrews Show and Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life with Ned Sherrin and John Wells, Billington 1987, 85; Hunter 2005, 64.
“not interested in politics”: J, 26, 29.
This moment was cut: J, 1972, 85. A cut regretted by some TS critics, e.g. Hunter 2000, 80, Fleming 2001, 275, n. 19.
Stoppard argued: Delaney 1994, 64.
1977 review: TS, “But for the Middle Classes,” review of PJ, Enemies of Society, Times Literary Supplement, 3 June 1977.
revived in 1985: “The Stoppard Morality Farce Jumps Back,” Mandrake, Sunday Telegraph, 31 March 1985.
support from Kenneth Tynan: Tynan 1977, Show People, 91.
Tynan wrote: HR, 36.1, KT to TS, 11 February 1970.
“very bad idea”: Barry Norman, “TS and the Contentment of Insecurity,” The Times, 11 November 1972. HR, 36.1, TS to Kathleen Tynan, 23 January 1987.
Tynan’s claim: Delaney 1990, 172. HR, 42.6, TS to Financial Times, responding to a review of Arcadia by Malcolm Rutherford, 20 April 1993. TS, interviews HL, 16–17 November 2015, 29 June 2016. Tynan 1977.
originally intended: TS, interview HL, 10 September 2014.
Tarzan was reinstated: J, 75.
giant revolve: Delaney 1990, 36.
major early change: J, 1972, 40, 29. MS, interview HL, 2 July 2014.
what to expect: TS to FP, 15 December 1971, Faber archive.
authorial warnings: J, 1972, 11; J, 1973, 11; J, 1986, 5. Philip Gaskell, in From Reader to Writer: Studies in Editorial Method, Clarendon Press, 1978, 245, defines the three textual stages of a work written for performance as first “the script, the written version of what was originally intended to be said,” secondly “the performance text” (“developed not by the author alone but by the director and the actors as well”), and thirdly the published “reading text.”
Peter Wood: Fleming, 273; Hayman 1977, 11; Hunter 2005, 179–90; TS, interviews HL, 18 March, 15–16 November 2015, 29 June 2016; Obituaries: Michael Coveney, Guardian, 18 February 2016; Telegraph, 17 February 2016; Michael Quinn, The Stage, 23 February 2016; Alan Strachan, Independent, 24 February 2016; The Times, 19 February 2016. Delaney 1994, 172–6, Ronald Hayman, “Peter Wood: A Partnership,” The Times, 8 June 1974.
“kid-glovey”: Delaney 1994, 174.
as they began: Hunter 2005, 130, 181. Hayman 1977, 11. Hordern, 1976 radio interview. “Yes, We Have No Banana,” Arts Guardian, 10 December 1971. Gussow, 23. FK, interview HL, 7 January 2015.
As the run went on: TSL, nd [January 1972], 9 July 1973. On Dotty, Alan Strachan, Peter Wood: Obituary, Independent, 24 February 2016.
a huge hit: Delaney 1990, 36.
