About this item
Highlights
- With his characteristically brilliant wordplay and extraordinary scope, Tom Stoppard has in Hapgood devised a play that "spins an end-of-the-Cold-War tale of intrigue and betrayal, interspersed with explanations of the quixotic behavior of the electron and the puzzling properties of light" (New York Times).
- About the Author: Tom Stoppard is the author of such seminal works as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Jumpers, The Real Thing, Arcadia, The Invention of Love, and the trilogy The Coast of Utopia.
- 196 Pages
- Poetry, General
Description
About the Book
Tom Stoppard's thrilling comic espionage story of a female British spymaster, examining motherhood, quantum mechanics, and the dualities of personality and perceptionBook Synopsis
With his characteristically brilliant wordplay and extraordinary scope, Tom Stoppard has in Hapgood devised a play that "spins an end-of-the-Cold-War tale of intrigue and betrayal, interspersed with explanations of the quixotic behavior of the electron and the puzzling properties of light" (New York Times). It falls to Hapgood, an extraordinary British intelligence officer, to try to unravel the mystery of who is passing along top-secret scientific discoveries to the Soviets, but as she does so, the web of personal and professional betrayals―doubles and triples and possibly quadruples―continues to multiply.Review Quotes
Praise for Hapgood:
"Intricate, absorbing . . . Fascinating . . . As with the best of le Carré, Hapgood delivers a satisfying two-fer. You can revel in the trappings, tradecraft, turnabouts, and general hugger-mugger of the traditional spy thriller . . . But you also get to immerse yourself in the big-picture Stoppardian play of ideas."--Boston Globe
"Merciful, witty, glancingly cerebral espionage drama . . . [Stoppard] has the ability to demonstrate intelligence as well as to display it. Hapgood fascinates and draws you in without ever turning you off . . . The breathless story engages the mind and emotions . . . The characters are written and performed with great feeling and common sense."--New York Times
"Complex, erudite--the product of what has to be the most capacious and intricate mind devoted to the dramatist's craft these days."--Los Angeles Times
"[Stoppard] has been called cerebral, but his mind is a cogitating heart; it lusts for ideas . . . Written during the endgame of the cold war, the play is a theatrical cyclotron into which Stoppard tosses his colliding human atoms . . . On the surface the play is a le Carré-like thriller . . . [Stoppard is] a marvelous entertainer . . . [A] metaphysical fun house."--Newsweek
"Few playwrights entertain as many ideas and make so many ideas entertaining as Tom Stoppard . . . [Hapgood] is hugely entertaining and often quite moving."--Variety
"Vastly entertaining."--Jewish Chronicle
"Stoppard's most cunning play yet."--Guardian
"Best to submit to the unique Stoppardian experience, be carried long by this clever and theatrically playful spymaster--and savor the wit and wordplay . . . and the fact that, in the end, everything makes perfect emotional sense."--Daily Mail
"A plot of fiendish ingenuity."--Independent
"[C]onsciously nostalgic for an era in British intelligence in which spymasters had bakelite telephones on their desk, spoke to each other by radio and in which the Cold War offered up a relatively simple paradigm of them and us . . . a frequently gripping piece about the multifaceted interplay between perception and deception that also slips in a sly tug on the emotions just when you least expect it."--Telegraph (UK)
"The play is itself a double agent. . . completely joyous . . . unparalleled verbal dexterity . . . a rollicking spy story to boot."--TimeOut (UK)
About the Author
Tom Stoppard is the author of such seminal works as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Jumpers, The Real Thing, Arcadia, The Invention of Love, and the trilogy The Coast of Utopia. His screen credits include Parade's End, Shakespeare in Love, Enigma, Empire of the Sun, and Anna Karenina.