'Leopoldstadt' is a Tour de Force of Wit, Intellectualism, and Emotion
The cast of Leopoldstadt. Photo by Liza Voll, courtesy of The Huntington.
The Shakespeare Theatre’s production of Leopoldstadt, the latest work by renowned British playwright Tom Stoppard, is a tour de force of wit, intellectualism, and raw, personal emotion. Given that the playwright is 87 years old, Leopoldstadt may be this master’s final work. If so, he is at the height of his genius, and this is a hell of a way to go out.
The play premiered on London’s West End in 2020 and on Broadway in 2022, winning both Olivier and Tony Awards. Here in D.C. it’s directed by Carey Perloff and presented in a new arrangement that director and playwright worked on together. This production was produced in partnership with The Huntington Theatre. The result is a night of theatre that feels special, memorable, and surprising.
Stoppard has had a long, storied career and is best known for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966), his zany, meta spinoff of Hamlet. Leopoldstadt has the sparkling dialogue and intellectual playfulness you might expect from this playwright. But it possesses a new gravitas, something darker and grittier than I’ve seen in his other work. The subject matter is a departure and most likely the reason for the different tone. Leopoldstadt is a semi-autobiographical work, and it follows a Jewish family in Vienna over decades, before and after the Holocaust.
This juxtaposition of light and dark is evident in the scenic design by Ken MacDonald and costuming by Alex Jaeger. The action takes place in one location, a grand drawing room of a fashionable Viennese apartment. The staging is magnificent, striking, and sumptuous. In 1899 the mood is hopeful, lively, and bustling as we’re introduced to Hermann (Nael Nacer) and Gretl Merz (Brenda Meaney) and their large, extended family.
Firdous Bamji, Nael Nacer, Phyllis Kay, and Sarah Corey in Leopoldstadt. Photo by Teresa Castracane, courtesy of Shakespeare Theatre Company.
This is a group of educated, intellectual, bourgeois Jews who’ve assimilated themselves into Austrian society. Everything we see on stage—the grand backdrop, the smart and tailored clothing, and the rat-a-tat-tat of quick dialogue and friendly debate—reflects a sense of prosperity and endless possibility. As the ambitious Hermann says, “Fifty years ago you couldn’t get a foot in. You couldn’t travel without a permit, or get a bed for the night in village or town except in the Jewish quarter … My grandfather wore a caftan, my father went to the opera in a top hat, and I have the singers to dinner.”
But Hermann’s brother-in-law Ludwig (Firdous Bamji), a mathematician, is more skeptical, and as the decades pass and antisemitism is on the rise, the family’s circumstances become reduced, and we see this reflected in the staging as well as the sharp lighting effects, historical sound footage, and striking, upsetting images projected onto the backdrop. Lighting design is by Robert Wierzel, and sound design and original music is by Jane Shaw. Their contributions are evident, as auditory and visual elements serve as transitions but also help to tie this grand tapestry of a play together.
By the somber final act, we are transported to 1955 and the aftermath of the Holocaust. The family’s survivors gather in the grand drawing room once more, trying to pick up the pieces of their lives and make sense of their past, present, and future.
Mishka Yarovoy, Nael Nacer, and Brenda Meaney in Leopoldstadt. Photo by Liza Voll, courtesy of The Huntington.
Unlike Stoppard’s other work, Leopoldstadt draws on his own family history, though it’s also heavily fictionalized. Stoppard was born Tomáš Sträussler in Czechoslovakia in 1937. His family fled the Nazis when he was two, eventually ending up in Britain. His father died during the war, and when his mother married an Englishman, she downplayed the family’s Jewish background and had the children take their stepfather’s last name, Stoppard. Tom Stoppard became a quintessentially British writer and only reconnected with his roots later in life. He learned that all four of his grandparents, and many members of his extended family, died in concentration camps.
Leopoldstadt’s cast is a capable ensemble helmed by standout performances by Nacer, Meaney, and Bamji, as well as Rebeca Gibel, Joshua Chessin-Yudin, and Mishka Yarovoy. The latter three play younger characters in the final act and are excellent at portraying raw, guttural emotions without overplaying or falling into melodrama.
What ties Leopoldstadt together are the myriad of small but meaningful moments of connection between characters, even when they butt heads. It’s a complex tapestry of characters, history, and ideas. Even time itself feels like a character, as the play highlights the intertwining nature of past, present, and future.
It's sometimes hard to keep track of who is related to whom, or the specifics of intellectual arguments. Stoppard, who has incorporated mathematical and scientific concepts into many of his earlier plays, weaves ideas about number theory and finding important truths about life by pondering mathematical ideas.
The cast of Leopoldstadt. Photo by Teresa Castracane, courtesy of Shakespeare Theatre Company.
The program includes a helpful family tree and glossary. But I’d advise against getting hung up on specifics, lest you miss the forest for the trees. Stoppard’s characters make light of confusing familial ties or mathematical theories. It’s impossible to predict the future or (so far) the sequence of prime numbers. In the present it’s impossible to know if we are doing the right thing, the best thing. But we can have conversations, and listen to dissenting opinions. And we can refuse to look away from the uncomfortable, the tragic, even the horrible.
Like Stoppard’s other work, Leopoldstadt is neither pessimistic nor nihilistic. Certainty and fairness may be elusive, but there is beauty in the dance, and a sense of rhythm, order, and connection underlying a world that too often feels random, depraved, or cruel.
Leopoldstadt is showing at The Shakespeare Theatre’s Harman Hall through 12/29, located at 610 F Street NW. Washington, DC 20004. Runtime is 2 hours and 37 minutes, with an intermission. Buy tickets online or call the box office at 202-547-1122. Parental discretion is advised for those under 18.
To learn more, check out this video interview with Tom Stoppard, in which he talks about his autobiographical inspirations in writing ‘Leopoldstadt’. And here’s a great piece on the role of math and intellectual theories in Stoppard’s work. You can also buy a copy of the play from Bookshop and support your favorite indie bookstore.
Norah Vawter is the Local Authors Editor for DCTRENDING. She’s a freelance writer, editor, and novelist, represented by Victress Literary. Norah lives in Virginia with her family. Follow her @norahvawter on Instagram and Twitter.