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Tom Stoppard hits out at left-wing theatre establishment
Jewish playwright, whose parents fled the Nazis, spent years opposing Communism
September 1, 2021 15:21
Jewish playwright, whose parents fled the Nazis, spent years opposing Communism
September 1, 2021 15:21Tom Stoppard has revealed his disdain for left-wing thespians who “pissed on” England.
The Jewish playwright discussed the “very strong, lively, left-wing side” to English life and English theatre he ran up against throughout his career in an interview with the Radio Times.
“I began to resent my sanctuary being pissed on by everybody I knew. Thanks a bunch,” he told the magazine, saying that without the UK, “I would have been in Communist Czechoslovakia now!”
His support for writers and dissidents within the Eastern bloc earned him the suspicion of England’s largely left-wing theatre establishment, he said.
Mr Stoppard was born Tomáš Sträussler in Zlín, a city now found in the Czech Republic.
His parents were non-observant Jews who fled Nazi occupation for Singapore, escaping on the day German troops invaded.
His father died following the Japanese invasion of Singapore and, after fleeing again to India, his mother remarried an English army major with “an innate antisemitism”, he told the Guardian in 2008.
Just days after his mother died his stepfather wrote to him to request that he stop using the Stoppard name as he was concerned about his ‘tribalisation’ and support for Soviet Jews.
Mr Stoppard’s play Leopoldstadt has recently reopened in London’s West End following a pandemic-imposed break.
“I make an appearance [in the play] as a young Englishman, Leo,” he told the Radio Times.
“In Vienna they say to him, ‘By the way, what is it with Leonard? Your name was Leopold. Too Jewish? You know you had another name and you are the continuation of that person.’”