Hry

by Tom Stoppard, Dana Hábová (translator)

V průřezu tvorbou současného anglického dramatika českého původu Toma Stopparda (1937) nechybí jeho nejslavnější hry, které jsou zároveň charakteristické pro jednotlivá dramatikova tvůrčí období: brilantní Stoppardova absurdistická hra Rosenkrantz a Guildenstern jsou mrtvi (1968, př. Jaroslav Kořán), jež založila jeho slávu, pronikavá wildeovsko-historická parodie Travestie (1974, př. Michael Žantovský) a milostné komedie To pravé (1982, př. Jitka Sloupová) a Arkádie (1994, př. Jaroslav Kořán). Svazek doplňují u nás dosud neuvedené ani nepublikované Stoppardovy aktovky: detektivní fraška Pravý inspektor Hound (1968), kterou pro tento výbor přeložila Dana Hábová, a diptych Doggův Hamlet, Krhútův Makbeth (1979, př. Jaroslav Kořán), inspirovaný osudy českých disidentských divadelníků. Autorem aktuální doprovodné studie Tom Stoppard (z r. 2000) je dramatikův krajan Jim Hunter.

Rosenkrantz a Guildenstern jsou mrtvi --
Pravý inspektor Hound --
Travestie --
Doggův Hamlet --
Krhútův Makbeth --
To pravé --
Arkádie.

477 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Sir 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.