Tom Stoppard hits out at left-wing theatre establishment

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.’”