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Title: The Invention of Love by Tom Stoppard ISBN: 0-8021-3581-1 Publisher: Publishers' Group West Pub. Date: September, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (14 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Brilliant and Luminous, Stoppard at his Best
Comment: The Invention of Love, in my opinion, Tom Stoppard's best play, opens with A.E. Housman being ferried across the River Styx by Charon, relieved to be dead at last. Or is he? Perhaps he is only dreaming from his bed in a rest home. One of the things that makes The Invention of Love so outstanding is Stoppard's wonderful mix of fantasy and reality. He combines the two so well, in fact, that we're never quite sure which is which. There are luminous scenes of young men rowing down the Thames to Hades, a marvelous Thameside encounter between the youthful Housman and his older self and an almost transcendent conclusion showing Housman stepping off-shore onto a watery-looking stage.
The Invention of Love successfully combines elements from Stoppard's previous plays: the wit and cleverness of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead with the emotional richness and intensity of The Real Thing to the purity of Arcadia. This is, however, a slower, more meditative and contemplative Stoppard. Even the flamboyant Oscar Wilde is presented in a toned-downed, rather Housmanesque style.
The script, itself, although erudite and intellectual, is so opulently rich in imagery and language (yes, there is a lot of Latin) that we, as an audience, are forced to be attentive. Stoppard rewards us handsomely, though, as we become increasingly aware that certain things (rivers, Hades, dogs, love, inventions, inversions, three men in a boat) circle and then loop back and circle again and again.
Those who think Housman's scholarliness might seem dull couldn't be more wrong. It is, instead, the very essence of this marvelous play. Stoppard uses lost Greek plays and corrupted Latin texts like the master he is. And he delivers a poignant message: Even great art contains within itself the seed of its own mortality. Although the artist (in this case, Housman) strives to produce a coherent and hopefully, immortal, body of work, time, itself, eventually leeches almost everything away until only fragments remain. This is a powerful message, to be sure, but in The Invention of Love, it is one that is both comforting and melancholy and sadly, we come to realize, all too true.
Rating: 4
Summary: Erudite? Yes! Not Emotional? Never.
Comment: At first glance, Tom Stoppard's newest work, THE INVENTION OF LOVE, exists as a scholarly presentation of A.E. Housman and the poetry which motivated the bulk of his life. However, Tom Stoppard does not blithely present Housman's life in lecture form. Instead, readers and audiences take a powerful journey beyond the life of Housman's poetry. In it, Stoppard shows us the (im)possibilities of love and friendship, and the indelible events which motivate our later lives. While Stoppard is well known for more intellectual drama, his ability to create heart-breaking moments of theater should not be underestimated. By the end of THE INVENTION OF LOVE, we understand why Housman's choice to hide behind his art is so tragic--and, ultimately, so human. Those who loved ARCADIA should not be without Stoppard at his most personal. Don't let Stoppard fool you: as audiences are aware from the current Broadway revival of THE REAL THING, Tom Stoppard does have a heart, and it one of the most powerful in contemporary theater.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Invention of Love Poetry
Comment: It opened in 1997, and the wind it brought to Los Angeles said, "Mr. Housman was queer." Well, no, the play says no such thing, these are not the memoirs of an old queen, although none other than Oscar Wilde is brought on toward the end as a figment of Housman's imagination to retail such goods in a shocking representation that puts me ahead of myself in this piece.
The actual subject of the play is the invention of love poetry by Propertius (or some other Roman poet) twenty centuries ago. This proceeds as a philological examination backwards, naturally, against an imaginary representation of Housman's life in his mind. The entire point is to create a simulacrum of emotions reflecting the condition of Propertius, by generating an elaborate masterpiece of artificial construction toying rather dangerously with the real.
It's all a game, but it grows more and more unstoppered until you have the real sense that Stoppard has let the play loose entirely: shame and confusion reign as Wilde is mocked (this is prepared with dazzling and daring care by introducing Bunthorne from Patience with the famous satire), until, in the best piece of writing Stoppard has produced, Housman unweaves the mess in the end.
The famous opening of Jumpers, involving a lady on a swing and a waiter with a tray, either has nothing on this, or amounts to what it all adds up to.
The Grove Press edition, which features on its back cover the pointed assertion that I am wrong and the wind had it right all along, rather humorously contains small alternate insertions (in parentheses) from the Royal National Theatre production, which give the text the incidental look of a variorum.
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Title: Tom Stoppard: Plays 5 : Aracadia, The Real Thing, Night & Day, Indian Ink, Hapgood by Tom Stoppard ISBN: 0571197515 Publisher: Faber & Faber Pub. Date: 01 December, 2000 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: Jumpers: A Play by Tom Stoppard ISBN: 0802151000 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: December, 1989 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Travesties by Tom Stoppard ISBN: 0802150896 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: July, 1991 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Arcadia by Tom Stoppard ISBN: 0571169341 Publisher: Faber & Faber Pub. Date: 24 September, 1994 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard, Henry Popkin ISBN: 0802132758 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: May, 1991 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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