Tom Stoppard, Jumpers

Doris Mader (Karl-Franzens-Universit)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kerry Myler (Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1972

Places

United Kingdom (Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

On its 1972 première, Jumpers – with its generic polyphony and impressive theatricality – may have given us the most opulent of all of Stoppard’s coups de théâtre. The play opens with a bizarre scenario, featuring the mock-striptease of a female character swinging in and out of sight on a huge chandelier; another intoning various songs that become drowned out by the droning of aeroplanes overhead; and a group of eight acrobats who complete this truly theatrical opening tableau with their “jumping, tumbling, somersaulting” (18) at a London Mayfair Residence: The Radical Liberals have taken over the state and are euphorically celebrating their landslide victory. This initial physical scenario …

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2625 words

Citation: Mader, Doris. "Jumpers". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 March 2008 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4256, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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