A change of pace--INVENTION OF LOVE

Stoppard's one of my favorite playwrights who I haven't gotten a chance to see in performance (though I should mention - I've read enough plays where I can seriously visualize the action without the benefit of a live performance). Invention of Love is an excellent script; can't say I prefer it to Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead or Arcadia, but I did find reading it very enjoyable. I wouldn't mind seeing it live, but Stoppard is generally woefully underproduced around here.

What captivates you so about it?

-Wayne

Did you see Shakespeare in Love, MasterLcZ? Stoppard co-wrote it.

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Updated On: 11/26/03 at 08:50 AM

Thanks for the heads-up, Magruder! Thanks ...forgot about that.

Yes I did like it despite its undeserved Best Actress Oscar.

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I've always been a Stoppard fan; for those of you who have read or seen The Real Thing (as I did about six or seven years ago), the cricket bat monologue was what made me want to be a playwright.

And I love any playwright who describes Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead as being about "these two blokes who knew Hamlet."

I, too, saw The Invention of Love (partially because of Robert Sean Leonard, partially because it was Tom effing Stoppard) and found it to be classic Stoppard, on par with Travesties. Pretentious? Maybe, but a great deal of fun. I love Stoppard for wielding his intelligence in lieu of writing plays about Floridian beauty queens (not that THOSE ever get produced).

This production seemed to haunt me. Over the course of its run I must have seen it 4 times. Every time I went back to NY I found myself going back to see it again.

I believe that one of the reasons I was able to enjoy it so much was that I had done my homework before seeing it for the first time. I found a site on the web that provided biographic backgrounds of each of the characters represented in the play. It also defined the meanings behind the Greek and Latin quotations cited by many of those characters. As a result, I not only knew who those people were who were speaking but just what it was they were saying! LOL

There are two scenes that I can't get out of my head and neither involve words or any particular actor. One is the scene at the school when the different characters arrive at the beginning of the term on their bicycles. That interplay of the bicycles - weaving in and out, with the accompanying orchestration, looked and felt like ballet. (Especially when seen from the balcony.) The next was the scene when the young Housman and Pollard were watching Jackson win the race. The autumn leaves were falling and that scene, with that lovely music, is stamped forever in my head. I'd give my next paycheck to be able to actually see it again.

It was wonderful seeing a play that allowed you to actually use your head and still be thoroughly entertained!

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Could you post the link to that site?

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