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Plays 4: Dalliance / Undiscovered Country / Rough Crossing / On the Razzle / The Seagull
Dalliance
Undiscovered Country
Rough Crossing
On the Razzle
The Seagull This fourth volume of Tom Stoppard's work for the stage brings together five of his most celebrated translations and adaptations of plays by Arthur Schnitzler ( Dalliance and Undiscovered Country ), Ferenc Molnar ( Rough Crossing , a classic farce set aboard an ocean liner), Johann Nestroy ( On the Razzle , a mad chase through Vienna), and Anton Chekhov ( The Seagull , the classic Russian country tale). According to The Times of London, "Adaptation in Stoppard's terms means finding a sympathetic text and using it as a springboard for invention that leaves the original far behind." In adapting these plays--some classics, some nearly forgotten--for the modern stage, Tom Stoppard has added his own unique elements of dazzling wit and verbal brilliance, hilarious parody and cutting satire, to create works that stand as exceptional works of theater that do not belong to any one age.
Undiscovered Country
Rough Crossing
On the Razzle
The Seagull This fourth volume of Tom Stoppard's work for the stage brings together five of his most celebrated translations and adaptations of plays by Arthur Schnitzler ( Dalliance and Undiscovered Country ), Ferenc Molnar ( Rough Crossing , a classic farce set aboard an ocean liner), Johann Nestroy ( On the Razzle , a mad chase through Vienna), and Anton Chekhov ( The Seagull , the classic Russian country tale). According to The Times of London, "Adaptation in Stoppard's terms means finding a sympathetic text and using it as a springboard for invention that leaves the original far behind." In adapting these plays--some classics, some nearly forgotten--for the modern stage, Tom Stoppard has added his own unique elements of dazzling wit and verbal brilliance, hilarious parody and cutting satire, to create works that stand as exceptional works of theater that do not belong to any one age.
480 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2000
3 people are currently reading
70 people want to read
About the author
Tom Stoppard
154 books1,015 followersSir Tom Stoppard was a Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and political freedom, often delving into the deeper philosophical thematics of society. Stoppard has been a playwright of the National Theatre and is one of the most internationally performed dramatists of his generation. He was knighted for his contribution to theatre by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997.
Born in Czechoslovakia, Stoppard left as a child refugee, fleeing imminent Nazi occupation. He settled with his family in Britain after the war, in 1946, having spent the previous three years (1943–1946) in a boarding school in Darjeeling in the Indian Himalayas. After being educated at schools in Nottingham and Yorkshire, Stoppard became a journalist, a drama critic and then, in 1960, a playwright.
Stoppard's most prominent plays include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966), Jumpers (1972), Travesties (1974), Night and Day (1978), The Real Thing (1982), Arcadia (1993), The Invention of Love (1997), The Coast of Utopia (2002), Rock 'n' Roll (2006) and Leopoldstadt (2020). He wrote the screenplays for Brazil (1985), Empire of the Sun (1987), The Russia House (1990), Billy Bathgate (1991), Shakespeare in Love (1998), Enigma (2001), and Anna Karenina (2012), as well as the HBO limited series Parade's End (2013). He directed the film Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), an adaptation of his own 1966 play, with Gary Oldman and Tim Roth as the leads.
He has received numerous awards and honours including an Academy Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, and five Tony Awards. In 2008, The Daily Telegraph ranked him number 11 in their list of the "100 most powerful people in British culture". It was announced in June 2019 that Stoppard had written a new play, Leopoldstadt, set in the Jewish community of early 20th-century Vienna. The play premiered in January 2020 at Wyndham's Theatre. The play went on to win the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play and later the 2022 Tony Award for Best Play.
Born in Czechoslovakia, Stoppard left as a child refugee, fleeing imminent Nazi occupation. He settled with his family in Britain after the war, in 1946, having spent the previous three years (1943–1946) in a boarding school in Darjeeling in the Indian Himalayas. After being educated at schools in Nottingham and Yorkshire, Stoppard became a journalist, a drama critic and then, in 1960, a playwright.
Stoppard's most prominent plays include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966), Jumpers (1972), Travesties (1974), Night and Day (1978), The Real Thing (1982), Arcadia (1993), The Invention of Love (1997), The Coast of Utopia (2002), Rock 'n' Roll (2006) and Leopoldstadt (2020). He wrote the screenplays for Brazil (1985), Empire of the Sun (1987), The Russia House (1990), Billy Bathgate (1991), Shakespeare in Love (1998), Enigma (2001), and Anna Karenina (2012), as well as the HBO limited series Parade's End (2013). He directed the film Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), an adaptation of his own 1966 play, with Gary Oldman and Tim Roth as the leads.
He has received numerous awards and honours including an Academy Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, and five Tony Awards. In 2008, The Daily Telegraph ranked him number 11 in their list of the "100 most powerful people in British culture". It was announced in June 2019 that Stoppard had written a new play, Leopoldstadt, set in the Jewish community of early 20th-century Vienna. The play premiered in January 2020 at Wyndham's Theatre. The play went on to win the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play and later the 2022 Tony Award for Best Play.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 5, 2017
I'm enough of an ignoramus that I bought this book without realizing these are not actually plays by Tom Stoppard, but are instead translations by Tom Stoppard of other playwrights. Nonetheless, the plays still have the patented Stoppard feel about them: lots of quick, witty dialogue and sort of abstract, existential reckonings with human smallness.
If you enjoy Stoppard's work in general, you should find plenty to like here as well. At this juncture, I've read quite a bit of him. I don't think any of his work will ever top the heights of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (one of the best pieces of drama I've ever read), but these are still enjoyable and quick reads.
If you enjoy Stoppard's work in general, you should find plenty to like here as well. At this juncture, I've read quite a bit of him. I don't think any of his work will ever top the heights of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (one of the best pieces of drama I've ever read), but these are still enjoyable and quick reads.
August 29, 2019
The fourth volume of Stoppard's Collected Plays, which contains translations/adaptations of other author's plays: Dalliance (1986), based on Arthur Schnitzler's Liebelei, Undiscovered Country (1980), based on Schnitzler's Das weite Land, Rough Crossing, based on Ferenc Molnar's Play at the Castle, On the Razzle (1981) based on Johann Nestroy's Einen Jux will er sich machen, and The Seagull, translated from the play of the same name by Anton Chekhov.
Before reading Stoppard's versions, I read the two plays by Schnitzler and the one by Nestroy (see my reviews); I also watched Liebelei, Einen Jux and On the Razzle on youtube. Dalliance and Undiscovered Country were relatively straightforward translations, although Stoppard emphasized the comic elements over the tragic, as one would expect from a playwright who mainly writes comedies, and is somewhat less subtle in characterization than Schnitzler; the Molnar adaptation is probably quite different from the original in that Stoppard sets it not in an Italian castle as in the original, but on a cruise ship named the Italian Castle and much of the dialogue is specific to the shipboard scene (there is a closer adaptation by P.G Wodehouse from 1926 called The Play's the Thing, which I haven't seen or read); On the Razzle also made many changes to the original. It has been too long since I read The Seagull to tell how close Stoppard's play is to Chekhov.
Before reading Stoppard's versions, I read the two plays by Schnitzler and the one by Nestroy (see my reviews); I also watched Liebelei, Einen Jux and On the Razzle on youtube. Dalliance and Undiscovered Country were relatively straightforward translations, although Stoppard emphasized the comic elements over the tragic, as one would expect from a playwright who mainly writes comedies, and is somewhat less subtle in characterization than Schnitzler; the Molnar adaptation is probably quite different from the original in that Stoppard sets it not in an Italian castle as in the original, but on a cruise ship named the Italian Castle and much of the dialogue is specific to the shipboard scene (there is a closer adaptation by P.G Wodehouse from 1926 called The Play's the Thing, which I haven't seen or read); On the Razzle also made many changes to the original. It has been too long since I read The Seagull to tell how close Stoppard's play is to Chekhov.
June 22, 2017
Rough Crossing*** – This is a farcical metaplay about the making of a musical while on a ship. The ship servant, Dvornicheck, is the most interesting and most funny character. It’s mildly interesting, but I’d have a hard time giving anyone a reason to read/see it. It’s fairly harmless.
The Seagull *** – Like Chekhov’s later play, The Cherry Orchard, the seeming simplicity of the plays belies the underlying layers of complexity. Everything – the speeches and the actions – are mostly indirect. The play is the building of a subtext to everything the characters say and do.
Furthermore, the characters all seem to wish to be someone else, though the person they want to be assures them they are nothing like who they are thought to be. Arkadina and Dorn may be the only characters who are happy with who they are (though in Arkadina’s case that doesn’t make them necessarily a better person).
Overall, I like The Cherry Orchard better than The Seagull. The Cherry Orchard is a bit more humorous, with more interesting characters. The Seagull seems to reek of teenage angst, especially the ending suicide. I feel a sense of tissue-clutching melodrama in it all – the spurned lover, the misunderstood artist, unable to face the hard, cruel world, ends it all. The suicide seems out of proportion to the situation.
All that said, this is an important play in drama history that everyone should read/see.
The Seagull *** – Like Chekhov’s later play, The Cherry Orchard, the seeming simplicity of the plays belies the underlying layers of complexity. Everything – the speeches and the actions – are mostly indirect. The play is the building of a subtext to everything the characters say and do.
Furthermore, the characters all seem to wish to be someone else, though the person they want to be assures them they are nothing like who they are thought to be. Arkadina and Dorn may be the only characters who are happy with who they are (though in Arkadina’s case that doesn’t make them necessarily a better person).
Overall, I like The Cherry Orchard better than The Seagull. The Cherry Orchard is a bit more humorous, with more interesting characters. The Seagull seems to reek of teenage angst, especially the ending suicide. I feel a sense of tissue-clutching melodrama in it all – the spurned lover, the misunderstood artist, unable to face the hard, cruel world, ends it all. The suicide seems out of proportion to the situation.
All that said, this is an important play in drama history that everyone should read/see.
July 17, 2024
On the Razzle is painful.
And Dalliance...is dumb.
Stoppard is an amazing playwright.
But these plays....are minor affairs.
And Dalliance...is dumb.
Stoppard is an amazing playwright.
But these plays....are minor affairs.
August 21, 2007
Another fantastic collection; Stoppard's gift for translation and adaptation make you believe wholeheartedly that none of the humor of the originals were lost - in fact, they are probably even funnier in his hands.
January 15, 2012
Skip the dry Dalliance, Undiscovered Country and (sigh) The Seagull, and enjoy Rough Crossing and On the Razzle, respectively witty and farcical.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews