THE WILMA THEATER PROUDLY PRESENTS
directed by blanka zizka
February 9, 2000 - April 2, 2000
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CONGRATULATIONS TO THE CAST AND CREW |
"...revel in [director] Blanka Zizka's production,
a cornucopia of surprise and elan...
This is, hands down, Philadelphia theater's finest production
not just of this season, but of many."
[Philadelphia Inquirer]
read The Inquirer's rave review
"An evening of theatrical fireworks! The play is romantic and funny... totally engrossing... Doesn't anyone have the courage to bring it to New York?"
[New York Post]
read the NY Post's rave review
"...signals the Wilmaís ascendance as a major player on the national scene."
[Philadelphia Weekly]
read Philadelphia Weekly's rave review
"A daring and gorgeous theatrical risk in every possible way"
[Philadelphia City Paper]
read Philadelphia City Paper's rave review
The newest masterpiece by the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Shakespeare in Love. Take a mysterious voyage into the underworld that is also a moving and funny trip through a great man's life. In THE INVENTION OF LOVE, Oscar-winner Tom Stoppard explores the life of classical scholar and renowned poet A.E. Housman. Old and infirm, Housman dreams that he is dead. As Charon, the mythical boatman, ferries him across the River Styx, Housman returns to the Oxford of his youth where he fell in love with scholarship and with his fellow student, Moses Jackson. Stoppardís dream world includes Victorian London, where Parliament made homosexuality a crime, and the French seashore, where Oscar Wilde - convicted of that very crime - is living out his final days. This complex and rewarding play weaves ideas, wit, and passion. THE INVENTION OF LOVE makes its East Coast premiere at the Wilma - before it goes to New York. And Tom Stoppard will be in residence during rehearsals.
Tom Stoppard talks with Wilma co-Artistic Director
Blanka Zizka at our public symposium in December 1999
AWARDS AND ACCOLADES
What did you think of the play? Post your own review on The Wilma Post!
Winner of the 1997 Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best New Play. "A magical memory play which meanders like an elaborate dream... Stoppard has been inspired to write the most emotionally powerful and enthralling play of his career. Never before has he written with such exciting eloquence." -Evening Standard
One of the ten "best plays of the 1990s. Lingered - and still does - in the mind long after the curtain came down. Tom Stoppard's portrait of English poet A.E. Housman still hasn't been seen in New York City, but it should be. THE INVENTION OF LOVE [is] intellectually bracing and emotionally moving." -Associated Press
"...the deeply rewarding Wilma production sparkles." -Time Magazine
"Stoppard at his best; manipulative, inquisitive, irresistible" -London Sunday Times
"So beautifully constructed that the playwright seems to be discovering his play only one jump ahead of the audience. It has that sense of surprise and wonder." -The New York Times
"Excellent... a fantasia-like memory play." -The Independent
"A rich expansive, play... A play that will keep analysts happy for years!" -The Guardian
"Some of the finest, most passionate, and most disarmingly beautiful dramatic writing that [Stoppard] has given us." -The Financial Times
