The self-described ‘bounced Czech’ created cerebral works centred by a core of genuine emotion – and always understood the ways of our world
All the best dramatists extend the frontiers of drama. Beckett and Pinter did it in their way. The achievement of Tom Stoppard was to take seemingly esoteric subjects – from chaos theory to moral philosophy and the mystery of consciousness – and turn them into witty, inventive and often moving dramas. Theatre, Laurence Olivier once said, is a great glamoriser of thought. Stoppard confirmed that with his capacity to make ideas dance.
I was lucky enough to discover Stoppard early on. That was entirely thanks to Philip French who, aside from being a film critic, was also a BBC producer. In 1966 he asked me to give a short talk on two radio plays by a then little-known writer (“a punk journalist from Bristol” was how someone described him to me) called Tom Stoppard. In The Dissolution of Dominic Boot, an impoverished writer ran up an ever escalating escalating taxi fare. And in If You’re Glad, I’ll Be Frank, a bus driver tried to contact his wife who was the speaking clock. I was struck by the ingenuity of both plays and got to meet their young author.
