Travesties (Masterplots II: Drama, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Tom Stoppard
- First Published: 1975
- Type of Plot: Problem play; memory play
- Time of Work: 1917-1918, remembered in the 1970’s
- Setting: Zurich, Switzerland
- Principal Characters: Henry Carr, Tristan Tzara, James Joyce, Lenin , Bennett, Gwendolen Carr, Cecily Caruthers, Nadya (Nadezhda Krupskaya
- Genres: Drama, Problem play, Parody, War drama, Memory play
- Subjects: 1970’s, Memory, Philosophy or philosophers, Revolutions, Art or artists, 1910’s, Novelists, Creative process, Comedy, Switzerland or Swiss people
- Locales: Zurich, Switzerland
The Play
Travesties opens in the Zurich Public Library in 1917. Among tall bookcases, James Joyce and Gwendolen work on Ulysses (1922), Lenin writes, and Tzara cuts up words he has written and randomly rearranges them. As he declaims the resulting poem, librarian Cecily enters and tries to quiet him. Both women leave, accidentally (and obviously) switching folders of Lenin’s and Joyce’s work. Nadya brings Lenin news of the revolution in St. Petersburg, they converse in Russian, and eventually all leave.
The scene changes to Carr’s room, with Old Carr...
[The entire page is 2394 words long]
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