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Travesties by Tom Stoppard β€” book cover
English, Scottish, & Welsh Drama, Historical Drama

Travesties

by Tom Stoppard
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Overview

Travesties ws born out of Stoppard's noting that in 1917 three of the twentieth century's most crucial revolutionaries -- James Joyce, the Dadaist founder Tristan Tzara, and Lenin -- were all living in Zurich. Also living in Zurich at this time was a British consula official called Henry Carr, a man acquainted with Joyce through the theater and later through a lawsuit concerning a pair of trousers. Taking Carr as his core, Stoppard spins this historical coincidence into a masterful and riotously funny play, a speculative portrait of what could have been the meeting of these profoundly influential men in a germinal Europe as seen through the lucid, lurid, faulty, and wholy riveting memory of an aging Henry Carr.

Synopsis

Travesties was born out of Stoppard's noting that in 1917 three of the twentieth century's most crucial revolutionaries -- James Joyce, the Dadaist founder Tristan Tzara, and Lenin -- were all living in Zurich. Also living in Zurich at this time was a British consula official called Henry Carr, a man acquainted with Joyce through the theater and later through a lawsuit concerning a pair of trousers. Taking Carr as his core, Stoppard spins this historical coincidence into a masterful and riotously funny play, a speculative portrait of what could have been the meeting of these profoundly influential men in a germinal Europe as seen through the lucid, lurid, faulty, and wholy riveting memory of an aging Henry Carr.

New York Daily News

"A knockout! Travesties is a brilliant, dazzling play."

About the Author, Tom Stoppard

Tom Stoppard is the author of such seminal works as Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, Every Good Boy Deserves a Favor, Arcadia, Jumpers, The Real Thing, and The Invention of Love.

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Editorials

New York

"The external brilliances in Travesties, its manic virtuosity of language, its diabolitical manipulation of time and notion, cannot elude any visitor to Tom Stoppard's achingly funny verbal prant... It's brilliant, stunning, a miracle!"

Newsweek

"Travesties is a brilliant, theatrical masterstroke. Crunchingly witty with a thousand laughs and nine hundred thoughts."

New York Daily News

"A knockout! Travesties is a brilliant, dazzling play."

New York Post

"Travesties glows as Tom Stoppard's best."

Book Details

Published
January 1, 1994
Publisher
Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Pages
96
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780802150899

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