A view of the cast of “Leopoldstadt,” which focuses on multiple generations of a Viennese Jewish family. (Joan Marcus)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Later, the play yields a hilarious scene involving a bris, a significant achievement given the fact that Stoppard had no idea what the circumcision ritual or any other religious Jewish custom involved as he started his research. He ended up asking some friends, including the Jewish essayist Fran Lebowitz, for help with details along the way.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a genius \u2014 he can read the research and reimagine it in dramatic form,\u201d the play\u2019s director Patrick Marber, a respected playwright in his own right who is also Jewish, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. \u201cBut he hasn\u2019t lived it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The writing of \u201cLeopoldstadt<\/em>,\u201d for Stoppard, who had previously written some three dozen plays, felt different.<\/p>\n\u201cThe great thing about theater is that you don\u2019t have to include that much,\u201d Stoppard said, downplaying the extensive research he does before each work. \u201cTo a large extent, the play has to trade on the knowledge that the audience brings to the theater.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I found myself treading quite delicately\u201d [with \u201cLeopoldstadt<\/em>\u201d], he said, adding that he felt a deep responsibility to dig deeply into the issues raised.<\/p>\nThe play\u2019s family ends up extremely fractured, and most die in Nazi camps. A heartrending twist at the end gets at the extreme ways some Jews went to save members of their families.<\/p>\n
Stoppard said he nearly named the play \u201cThe Family Album<\/em>,\u201d a fact that is poignant when considered in the context of a scene from the play\u2019s beginning involving a photo album. It becomes more relevant as the story unravels and the family\u2019s branches are scattered about, and murdered.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019ve been writing in names that are missing, the ones I know, which is by no means all of them,\u201d the family\u2019s matriarch says in the opening act as she holds a photo album. \u201cThat\u2019s what happens, you see. First, there\u2019s no need to write who they are, because everyone knows that\u2019s great-aunt Sophia or cousin Rudi, and then only some of us know, and already we\u2019re asking, \u2018Who\u2019s that with Gertrude?\u2019 and \u2018I don\u2019t remember this man with the little dog,\u2019 and you don\u2019t realize how fast they\u2019re disappearing from being remembered.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the fans Stoppard has talked to, \u201cIt\u2019s as though they\u2019ve never seen the subject dealt with before like this\u201d on stage, he said, arguing that the most poignant and prominent Holocaust-themed works have often been reserved for Hollywood.<\/p>\n
Marber \u2014 who is best known for writing \u201cCloser<\/em>,\u201d the play that inspired a film of the same name starring Natalie Portman and Jude Law \u2014 grew up going to synagogue in London and has proudly declared himself over the years to be a \u201cJew first, Englishman second.\u201d But even he has been deeply moved by the experience of working on \u201cLeopoldstadt<\/em>\u201d (he directed the British version as well). He now regularly wears a Jewish star necklace, for example, which his non-Jewish wife gave him during New York rehearsals.<\/p>\nKrumholtz, who descends from Hungarian and Polish Jews, has become more in touch with his Jewish identity throughout the process, too, Marber added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the first time I\u2019ve understood the feeling of Jews feeling the ground shifting beneath their feet, and not being able to believe it would get that bad,\u201d Marber said.<\/p>\n
As he prepared to leave the balcony (\u201cI have to see who else needs me\u201d), Stoppard admitted, maybe not purposefully, that he is still learning about the ripple effects of Jewish history. For instance, he said \u201cit\u2019s incredible\u201d how many family New York City families he has learned about from fans that have legacies that aren\u2019t \u201cso different from the family in the play.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s another dynamic that has surprised him, too, related to all of the buzz the play has generated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought that the subject of the Jews through the war had been done and done,\u201d he said. \u201cBut actually, not really!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLeopoldstadt\u201d<\/strong> is playing at the Longacre Theater in New York through January 2023.<\/em><\/p>\n
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