Life is full of peculiar ironies and thus, Tom Stoppard, quite possibly the most most dizzyingly proficient writer of the English tongue did not grow up speaking English. He is, to use his old joke, a bounced check. He grew up in Czechoslovakia and spoke that language until the age of three-and-one half, or perhaps five.
Accounts of Stoppard's past tend to vary a bit. There followed a series of abrupt moves triggered by the onset of war. The very short version of this story is that Stoppard's father, a doctor, stayed behind in Singapore where he was needed and paid for that ethical decision with his life.
Stoppard and the rest of his family ended up in India where young Tom did some of his growing up. His mother married the man whose name Stoppard bears.
But, the great playwright isn't a fan of biographical analysis.
This hour: A conversation with Tom Stoppard about the creative process of a playwright, what is revealed—or not—in his radio plays and how the problem Stoppard is solving while writing isn't big questions about chaos vs. order, it's: "What should the next line be?" Genius is a funny thing, isn't it?
This episode originally aired September 8, 2014, and was recorded live at The Study in New Haven, Conn. Betsy Kaplan and Chion Wolf produced the hour.
GUEST:
- Tom Stoppard is a Czech-born playwright. His most famous works include "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" and "Every Good Boy Deserves Favor." He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1998 Academy Award winning film, "Shakespeare in Love." Over the course of his career he has written for radio, television, film and stage. He' received one Academy Award and four Tony Awards for his work.
UPDATE: Tom Stoppard has died at the age of 88. In appreciation of Stoppard and his work, we’re re-publishing their conversation with a note from Colin.
The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode!
Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show.
