‘Leopoldstadt’ by Tom Stoppard
3 February 2022
On Saturday we were at the Curzon Cinema at Milton Keynes Gallery to watch the National Theatre Live recording of Tom Stoppard’s new play ‘Leopoldstadt’, directed by Patrick Marber at Wyndham's Theatre in London's West End. The play tells the story of an extended middle-class Jewish family living in Vienna from 1899 to 1955. Almost all the scenes take place in the family’s apartment, but are separated by gaps of many years. It was quite a challenge merely to keep track of the characters in the various strands of the family, as young children from one scene appear as adults in the next. But this creates a fascinating, and believable, family saga, against the ominous backdrop of the coming Holocaust. As always, Stoppard’s script is witty and intellectual - at times here becoming a little too much like a George Bernard Shaw play in which the rigorous debate of ideas over the dinner table feels a bit unrealistic. Nevertheless it’s a gripping and achingly sad journey, told very straight-forwardly. ‘Leopoldstadt’ reminded me of ‘The Hare With Amber Eyes’ (reviewed here in September 2011) in which Edmund de Waal recounts the experiences of the Viennese branch of his own Jewish family through the same period of history. I was also reminded of Ronald Harwood’s play ‘Mahler's Conversion’ which deals with the composer Gustav Mahler rejecting his Jewish background in 1897 to convert to Catholicism in order to be granted the prestigious position of Director of the Vienna Court Opera. The story of the rise and fall of a Jewish family business also made me think of that incredible staging of the tale of Lehman Brothers Bank - 'The Lehman Trilogy' by Stefano Massini, adapted by Ben Power (reviewed here in August 2019). ‘Leopoldstadt’ is excellently acted by a cast of about 30. It is a tragic story, beautifully presented.
posted by Robin Simpson @ 5:41 pm
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