Tom Stoppard | Lightnews

Brice Ezell

@briceezell.bsky.social

600 followers 460 following 2K posts

Writer, critic (@PopMatters), teacher. ATL.
PhD in English, University of Texas.
Modern drama, theatre, and philosophy.
Writing a book on Tom Stoppard.
Also a denizen of debate-land.
https://boxd.it/1rEO5

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Sir Tom Stoppard is a Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and political freedom, often delving into the deeper philosophical bases of society. Stoppard has been a playwright of the National Theatre and is one of the most internationally performed dramatists of his generation. He was knighted for his contribution to theatre by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997. .. more

Art 49%

Philosophy 16%

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Brice Ezell @briceezell.bsky.social · Jan 14

Years ago, I started noticing that post-2016 America could best be divided into days that felt like SOUTHLAND TALES and days that felt like TRUE DETECTIVE season two. I put this theory of mine into words for the good folks at @mid-theory.bsky.social: mid-theory.com/2025/01/14/t...

The Southland-Vinci Theorem

Using Los Angeles as a synecdoche for the nation, these stories ambitiously try to chart the scale of America’s degradation, only to find that it’s easy to become artistically inchoate in the proce…

mid-theory.com

Brice Ezell @briceezell.bsky.social · 23h

This factoid's in my book!

Dr Fergus Edwards @drfergusedwards.bsky.social · 23h

Stoppard's interest in philosophy was long-standing - it is now on the record that he attended evening classes on the subject while a working journalist in Bristol, from Prof. Stephan Körner (a surname he would use as Kerner when he needed a last minute replacement in Hapgood).

Reposted by Tom Stoppard

Dr Fergus Edwards @drfergusedwards.bsky.social · 23h

Brice Ezell @briceezell.bsky.social · 1d

I know it was in fact Shakespeare’s son’s name, but Hamnet is so funny as a name in that it sounds like a straight-to-DVD rip-off of HAMLET, in the same way that “Rossencraft” and “Gilderstone” do in Q1 HAMLET.

Brice Ezell @briceezell.bsky.social · 2d

TIL that (a) Grimace is a taste bud, (b) I learned this fact because there is a McDonald's wiki, and (c) this is Grimace's "bio"

Brice Ezell @briceezell.bsky.social · 3d

I am of two minds about TRAIN DREAMS (the movie). If I pretend I don't know anything about the source material, I like it quite a lot. But because I do love Johnson's novella, and especially the wolf-boy scene at the end (horribly butchered here), my like is at arm's length.

Robert Rubsam @robrubsam.bsky.social · 3d

Fine: I wrote about Train Dreams defector.com/train-dreams...

‘Train Dreams’ Is Afraid Of Its Own Shadow | Defector

By now, you have probably heard about Train Dreams. Since premiering this past January at Sundance, Clint Bentley’s adaptation of the Denis Johnson novella has been lauded by critics, screened at vari...

defector.com

Brice Ezell @briceezell.bsky.social · 3d

Someone really needs to write the “American Catholics that are Actually Protestant” book.

derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · Oct 17

heartbroken to learn the pope sympathizes with the poor. how can i continue to believe in god

The Pope tweets: "The poor are not there by chance or by blind and cruel fate. Nor, for most of them, is poverty a choice. Yet, there are those who still presume to make this claim, thus revealing their own blindness and cruelty. #DilexiTe"

Someone replies: "I was so hopeful I could be a Catholic again after the disaster that Francis was, guess we just get Francis 2.0 now and I am heartbroken. How do I stay a Catholic now...I don't want to lose faith but I am. You belong to someone else, not God."

Brice Ezell @briceezell.bsky.social · 3d

Yes, exactly right. Was thinking of my guy Stoppard here. Plenty in JUMPERS and THE INVENTION OF LOVE "sounds like writing," but the style fits the context.

Brice Ezell @briceezell.bsky.social · 3d

Everything I've heard/read from Nuzzi's book violates this classic writing "rule" of Elmore Leonard's. (I, for one, don't always agree with this rule, but it is 100 percent true here.)

Reposted by Tom Stoppard

Robert Rubsam @robrubsam.bsky.social · 3d

Fine: I wrote about Train Dreams defector.com/train-dreams...

‘Train Dreams’ Is Afraid Of Its Own Shadow | Defector

defector.com

Brice Ezell @briceezell.bsky.social · 3d

Immediately snatched up @hamrahrama.bsky.social’s new book upon reading this. Our best working film critic, for what my opinion’s worth. I use his stuff all the time in my teaching. www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...

Brice Ezell @briceezell.bsky.social · 4d

Tom Stoppard was born, escaped the Nazis, and died as they were making their comeback.

Reposted by Gerry Canavan, David R. Miller, Jason Lyall , and 2 more Gerry Canavan, David R. Miller, Jason Lyall, Tom Stoppard, Nathan P. Kalmoe

No true bill @bill-of-lefts.bsky.social · 4d

I don’t want to be pollyannish about the past, but it was basically inconceivable twenty years ago that a president would say this publicly

Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 4d

Trump: "It’s a hellhole right now. And those Somalians should be out of here. They've destroyed our country. And all they do is complain, complain, complain. You have her. She’s always talking about the Constitution provides me with – go back to your own country and figure out your constitution."

Brice Ezell @briceezell.bsky.social · 5d

Just wondering what it’d take for Xavi to get consistent starts is all

Brice Ezell @briceezell.bsky.social · 5d

What did Xavi Simons do to anger Thomas Frank?

Brice Ezell @briceezell.bsky.social · 5d

The error a lot of audiences made, I think, was expecting a Nancy Meyers-style romantic dramedy (which admittedly the early trailer kinda gives), when in fact the movie is like a group of Marxist grad students writing a romantic dramedy (I say with praise).

Brice Ezell @briceezell.bsky.social · 5d

We’d need to clone Xavi a couple of times to pull this off

Brice Ezell @briceezell.bsky.social · 6d

SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE but with the most insufferable people you've ever met.

Brice Ezell @briceezell.bsky.social · 7d

If ENIC listen to the Spurs fans baying "Frank out," they're giving in to a contingent who think that if we had a good manager we'd be right back to where we were with Kane and Son, which... is not close to where we're at right now.

Brice Ezell @briceezell.bsky.social · 7d

Even his roasts are polite. While working in his archive I read a letter he wrote to a hotel in the early '90s that would be the greatest Yelp review ever published had Stoppard the inclination to do that kind of thing. Simultaneously pointed and affable.

Brice Ezell @briceezell.bsky.social · 7d

Sondre Lerche's solo acoustic cover of Prefab Sprout's "Lions in My Own Garden (Exit Someone)" is great AND it makes you wonder how THOSE are the chord progressions Paddy McAloon landed on. www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkMx...

Sondre Lerche - Lions In My Own Garden (Prefab Sprout)

YouTube video by spiritstereo

www.youtube.com

Brice Ezell @briceezell.bsky.social · 8d

*Martin Sheen in THE DEPARTED voice* Jukt Micronics

Brice Ezell @briceezell.bsky.social · 8d

Did much of my dissertation work at the Ransom Center, and had a summer fellowship a few years ago to work on my book project on Stoppard's dramatization of topics in analytic philosophy. Cannot recommend spending time at the HRC enough; literary heaven, far as I'm concerned.

Ben Gross @bhgross144.bsky.social · 8d

...and thank you for entrusting your papers to @ransomcenter.bsky.social so that future researchers can learn more about your creative process.

research.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/fin...

#TomStoppard #booksky #theatre 📜🗃️

Tom Stoppard: An Inventory of His Papers at the Harry Ransom Center

research.hrc.utexas.edu

Brice Ezell @briceezell.bsky.social · 8d

Insane that he put out a work as major as LEOPOLDSTADT in his final years. Unlike a lot of "late style" examples, still feels quite continuous with his masterpieces but just so slightly different (rather than wholly unusual).

Brice Ezell @briceezell.bsky.social · 8d

never seen a bad production!

Brice Ezell @briceezell.bsky.social · 8d

#1 is hard to argue!

Brice Ezell @briceezell.bsky.social · 8d

On the Other Site last year I did this little list of what, to me, represents the right ranking of his stage plays, which I stand by still.

Brice Ezell @briceezell.bsky.social · 8d

For those looking for Stoppard reads outside of the omnipresent ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN, pick up a copy of ARCADIA. After reading that, get THE REAL THING, JUMPERS, and THE INVENTION OF LOVE.

Brice Ezell @briceezell.bsky.social · 8d

Well, was wondering if this would happen while I was writing a book about him. RIP to one of the greats of the modern theatre. www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/n...