Miscellaneous Stoppard Productions, Appearances and Interviews

I've been remiss in keeping tracking track of various Stoppard productions since "Rock 'n' Roll" closed on Broadway. Here are links to a handful around the country and globe:

In Boston, The Publick Theatre is presenting "Travesties." The Boston Globe has a review. And so does the Boston Herald.

"Hapgood" is being revived in Britain, but it's still seen as a transitional piece.

"Rock 'n' Roll" has opened in Sydney.

The Queensland Theatre Company performed "Heroes," but you probably missed it.

Stoppard granted a rare interview to the Oxford student newspaper, on the occasion of receiving the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence.

Stoppard will take part in the HighTide theater and film festival in Halesworth, May 1-5.

At Harvard, "Angels in America" author Tony Kushner criticized "The Coast of Utopia" but praised "The Wire."

I Am NOT Dwight Shrute

Somebody at my workplace knows I'm a fan of "The Office." This tempting office supply/dessert was on my desk after I momentarily stepped away this afternoon.

Blogging Malaise

It had been a long time between posts here. I'm not sure what happened. I was enveloped by some kind of malaise and had trouble pulling myself out of it.

I did contribute a few items to my other blog, though. In case you missed them, I wrote about "The Big Lebowski" and its real-life inspirations, new books by Toby Barlow, John Meaney and Mark Evanier, and the passing last week of Arthur C. Clarke.

I'm particularly happy with the Clarke tribute. The Chronicle gave me a decent amount of space in the paper and, thanks to StumbleUpon, my blog post pointing to the online version was one of my most popular entries ever.

The next couple of weeks promise to be super-busy and stressful. I don't know whether I can regain a regular blogging rhythm. I'll do what I can, I guess.

ACT Nabs "Rock 'n' Roll" for Fall '08

No surprise, really. Back in January, Carey Perloff strongly hinted she would soon produce Stoppard's latest play at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre. Today it was announced that it will be the season opener for '08-'09. Excellent!

One of the great advantages of living in the San Francisco Bay Area is the opportunity to see some really first-rate theater. I'm especially excited by Berkeley Rep's next season, which will feature Martin McDonagh's "The Lieutenant of Inishmore," August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" and "Yellowjackets," a world premiere by Itamar Moses about Berkeley High School in the Nineties.

The redoubtable Shotgun Players also have an interesting season ahead of them. I'm looking forward to their version of "Beowulf.

I'm unsure whether a trip to Ashland, Oregon, is in the cards this year. Nothing in the 2008 season besides "Fences" really grabs my attention. (And they're staging "The Music Man in '09? What's up with that? I don't need to travel six hours and pay $60 a ticket to hear "'Til There Was You.")

Now I just have to find the spare cash to see all these plays...

Stoppard Roundelay

The Baltimore Sun's critic thought the unconventional casting of the Centerstage's production of "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern..." gave the "old play new relevance." Broadwayworld.com begged to differ, saying that the production "has set the new standard for bad theatre." Ouch.

Stoppard weighs in on the debate about whether Dmitri Nabokov should, per his father's wishes, destroy the final manuscript by the author of "Pale Fire" and "Lolita." Stoppard comes down on the side of "Burn it!"

John Madden, director of "Shakespeare in Love," writes about working with Stoppard on that breakthrough film. Then Stoppard himself gets a chance to discuss the production. (And, holy crap, has it really been 10 years since its release?)

In an interview on the Guardian Unlimited, Stoppard discusses his support of the Belarus Free Theatre.

And everybody covets Stoppard's book-bag.

Striking a Balance

I haven't yet found the perfect balance between my old and new blogs. Two-Fisted Freelancing Tales gets more attention from me, largely because I'm really trying to learn how to build traffic on it. But I know that Cheaper Ironies has its regulars, including some who might be wondering about my latest reviews.

So, check out my recent Chronicle reviews of "Runemarks," a children's fantasy by Joanne Harris, and of Stephen King's "Duma Key," "Hunter's Run" by George R.R. Martin, Gardner Dozois and Daniel Abraham, and "The Dragons of Babel" by Michael Swanwick.

Also, if you're a fan of King, I recommend to you Bev Vincent's "Tales from the Dead Zone" and Lilja's Library.

"Quantum of Solace" Means What Now?

"Quantum of Solace." Wow, could there be a worse title for the next James Bond movie? Sure, it's taken from one of the stories in "For Your Eyes Only" (one in which 007 barely makes an appearance). But it's so dementedly overreaching in its attempt to be poetic that I almost suspect that someone is taking the piss, as they say in Ian Fleming's homeland.

If you have any affection at all for Bond, you really should read Simon Winder's "The Man Who Saved Britain." It's a fascinating look at how "Casino Royale," "Dr. No" and "Goldfinger" pulled Britain out of the funk it had been in since World War II. Winder is both captivated and repelled by Fleming and the super-spy ethos he invented, and he dissects the Bond books and movies with great wit and insight.

Saturday Stoppard

Last Saturday, I attended a "conversation" with Tom Stoppard at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater. Sponsored by the Koret Foundation, the event was hosted ACT artistic director Carey Perloff.

Beginning at 10 on a storm-swept morning, the program attracted a sell-out -- and peculiarly geriatric -- crowd, but their enthusiasm for the author was evident. Settled in armchairs on the otherwise empty stage, Stoppard and Perloff discussed the recent success of "The Coast of Utopia" and "Rock 'n' Roll" for just under an hour. Some highlights for notes scribbled on the program:

Stoppard talked about his first trip back to Zlin, in what used to be Czechoslovakia. There he met the daughter of one of his father's medical colleagues, and the now-elderly woman told him how Dr. Straussler had stitched up her hand after she smashed it through a window in a childhood accident. Stoppard said that he was moved by the tangible evidence of his late father's handiwork.

Perloff recounted an anecdote about a student at ACT asking Stoppard to name the most important quality that an actor should bring to his scripts. Stoppard's answer: "Clarity of utterance."

Now devising a new translation of a Chekhov play, Stoppard said he works best at night, although he sometimes wakes to find that what he has produced reads "as if the Polish au pair girl had rearranged it." Also in regard to the Chekhov project, he reported that he's found a way not to worry about the presumed artificiality of characters speaking to themselves while alone on stage. "Breaking the fourth wall doesn't break the play."

Perloff kept the conversation rolling, but there's something a little off-putting about her manner, which borders on the fawning. I reap the benefits of her friendship with Stoppard, in that it enables events like this Koret program and the U.S. premieres of "Indian Ink" and "The Invention of Love." But it's a little icky to watch her gaze at him and proclaim him to be "the greatest living writer in the English language." It may be true, but c'mon.

She also apparently burnishes his bon mots a bit. After relating a story with the supposed punchline of "The problem with America is that you don't seem to have an Irony button on your keyboard," Stoppard gently corrected her, saying that he only wished for a typeface that could identify the ironic lines in his playscripts.

The biggest news of the day came at the beginning, when Perloff let slip that she is angling to bring "Rock 'n' Roll" to the Bay Area. Let's hope she's able to complete that negotiation successfully.