Three Stoppard Masterpieces: The Real Thing, Arcadia, and Leopoldstadt




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ClassGraphic Prolific and brilliantly original, Sir Tom Stoppard has produced a remarkable body of work as a playwright and screenwriter over 50-plus years. We will discuss three of his most widely admired plays: The Real Thing (1982), Arcadia (1993), and Leopoldstadt (2020). The Real Thing has been called the greatest play about love written in the late 20th century. Arcadia is a complex tragicomedy which fuses many seemingly disparate themes into a coherent and ultimately deeply moving play. Leopoldstadt is a play about a Viennese Jewish family before and after its devastation by the Holocaust. The story was inspired by Stoppard’s discovery in his mid-50s that he came from a Jewish family impacted in the same way. Until then, Stoppard had been unaware of his heritage and identified as simply British. We will also read Stoppard’s 1999 essay “On Turning Out to be Jewish” published in Talk. It is timely that Leopoldstadt will have its Chicago-area premier this June. Any editions of the plays may be used. All are available in print and electronic formats. Anyone is welcome to join us, whether new to Stoppard’s plays or already an admirer.

Class Details

7 Session(s)
Weekly - Thu

Location
500 Davis Center

Instructor
Multiple

Tuition: 

$0.00

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Schedule Information

Date(s) Class Days Times Location Instructor(s)
4/23/2026 - 6/4/2026 Weekly - Thu 01:15 PM - 03:15 PM Evanston, 500 Davis Center  Map John Drodow  ; Naomi Fisher  ; Abe Brustein 

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