TOM STOPPARD (b.1937)
Leopoldstadt. London: Faber and Faber, 2020.
A compellingly personal first edition of the latest play by one of Britain’s most celebrated playwrights, annotated by the author across 27 pages. First performed at Wyndham’s Theatre, London, in January 2020, Leopoldstadt is an ‘epic yet intimate drama’, inspired by Stoppard’s Czech-Jewish heritage. The play charts the lives of one multi-generational Jewish family living in Vienna, spanning six decades from 1899 to the aftermath of the Holocaust. Marked in red and black ink, Stoppard’s edits to lines and stage directions reflect the process of rewriting and the evolution of the play as a fluid and interactive process. An additional hand-written note from the playwright is loosely inserted, explaining that he annotated this copy after the play opened to remind himself of variations to be considered for the reprint.

Octavo. Original pictorial card wrappers.

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