Tom Stoppard: Plays 5 : Arcadia, The Real Thing, Night & Day, Indian Ink, Hapgood (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Arcadia
"I have never left a new play more convinced that I'd just witnessed a masterpiece."--Daily Telegraph

"This is a brilliant, brilliant play. A play of ideas, of consummate theatricality, of sophisticated entertainment and of heartache for time never to be regained."--Sunday Times

The Real Thing
"In The Real Thing he [Stoppard] combines some fly Pirandellian games with an unequivocal statement about the joyousness of shared passion. And the result is the rare thing in the West End (or anywhere else for that matter): an intelligent play about love."--Guardian

Night & Day;
"How excellent it is to leave a theatre thinking as this play makes you think."--Financial Times

Hapgood
"Hapgood is a new variation on one of Stoppard's abiding themes: the black romance of reality and appearance. This is a metaphysical spy-thriller, intricate, elegant, and lucid...for sheer intellectual excitement, Hapgood has no rival."--Sunday Times

"Tom Stoppard's most cunning play--a dazzling, double game of physics and espionage--remarkable."--Guardian

Product Description

Plays Five:
Arcadia
The Real Thing
Night & Day;
Indian Ink;
Hapgood

This fifth collection of Tom Stoppard's plays brings together five classic plays by one of the most celebrated dramatists writing in the English language.

Arcadia received the Evening Standard, the Oliver, and the Critics Awards and
The Real Thing won a Tony Award.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 608 pages
• Publisher: Faber & Faber (December 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0571197515
• ISBN-13: 978-0571197514
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #75,363 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fantastic Collection, September 27, 2001

By	Mr. Timothy Johnson (DICKSON, ACT Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a great collection of Tom Stoppard plays, and includes some of his best works.

Arcadia is one of Stoppard's greatest plays - a bizarre combination of physics, mathematics, poetry, a good old-fashioned academic stoush and romance (or lust) to boot. A fantastic play to see, but very good to read also.

The Real Thing, Hapgood and Indian Ink are also among Stoppard's more mature and better plays, and nicely round out this collection. These are some of Stoppard's better known plays (and you can read reviews of them on their own pages) but I'll just summarise by saying that I think they are fantastic.

Night and Day is an earlier Stoppard play and maybe not quite as good - it is concerned with journalism in war-torn Africa and does take a deep look at issues faced by a journalist in that situation. However, in comparison to the other plays in this volume, it just doesn't seem quite as good - however it is still a fine play in its own right and does make for interesting reading nonetheless.

Overall, I definitely reccomend this volume, particularly since it's cheaper than buying each of the plays individually.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A magnificent collection, December 20, 2000

By	Angela Marie Teater (Seattle, WA, United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

After seeing Stoppard's "The Real Thing" in London, I was blown away. I purchased this collection to have "The Real Thing," and was blown away but all 5 of Stoppard's masterpieces. He writes convincingly of love, redemption and what it means to exist and to live. I cannot recommend this collection (or anything by Stoppard) enough.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Master Playwright, August 29, 2002

By	K. Alford "WriterBearSF" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Every time I pick up this collection, I find myself sitting and reading for hours. Something about Stoppard's command of the language, his own personal calling card, is undeniably riveting.

And though there are times (especially in Day & Night) where it seems that characters are too clever for their own good, his sense of timing and his love for delivering a smart, believable group of people amazes me.

This collection is wonderful in its scope, including everything from the frequently produced "Hapgood" to the more recent treasure "Indian Ink." It's a must-have.