In Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt, the writer attempts to present dramatically a fate he had avoided as a Jewish boy born on the outer fringes of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1937. He discovered in his 60s that most of his family had perished in the Holocaust. Previewing at Wyndham’s Theatre in London’s West End on January 25, 2020, Leopoldstadt planned to run until May 16, 2020, but it closed after eight weeks when the Covid-19 pandemic forced London theatres to shut. Like the characters in his play, and his own family, and generally in life, the play illustrates that the future cannot be predicted or anticipated.
Biographical Origins
Leopoldstadt has been …
5275 words
Citation: Baker, William. "Leopoldstadt". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 July 2021 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=40470, accessed 24 November 2024.]
