Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt, directed by Patrick Marber and produced by Sonia Friedman Productions, will return to Wyndham’s Theatre for a 12-week run from 7 August – 30 October 2021. Casting will be announced shortly.
Patrons whose bookings were affected by the Government’s previous directives will be contacted from today Friday 23 April 2021 regarding their current bookings with public booking opening at 10am on Friday 30 April 2021.
Sonia Friedman said: “I am deeply relieved that after a year of immense loss and struggle for so many, including the unthinkable shutdown of our theatre industry, to announce the new dates for the return of Tom’s astonishing play to the West End. Leopoldstadt is a passionate drama of enduring love and familial bonds that asks us to bear witness to our pasts, no matter how painful that may be. The audience response throughout our seven weeks of sold-out performances before the pandemic struck in March 2020 was incredibly moving and humbling to witness. Over a year later and now having won the 2020 Olivier Award for Best New Play, Leopoldstadt could not be more pertinent. I so look forward to returning to the Wyndham’s Theatre, to welcome back our very special audiences as we continue to share this epic, truly great new play.”
Patrick Marber said: “Tom and I visited the Leopoldstadt area of Vienna in October 2019. We started rehearsals a month later in London. The play opened in February 2020 and then had to close in March. When we gather to re-rehearse in July 2021 it will be an incredible moment for all involved. It has been a long journey. We were all thrilled by the reception this production received first time round and we’re so excited to be able to share this mighty and beautiful play with audiences again. I’m so grateful to Sonia and Cameron for this opportunity and so proud to be working with these amazing and loyal actors on such a powerful, moving and painfully relevant play. I’ve admired Tom’s work since boyhood, he influenced me enormously as a fledgling playwright and now it’s my great honour and joy to be his collaborator once more.”
At the beginning of the 20th Century, Leopoldstadt was the old, crowded Jewish quarter of Vienna. But Hermann Merz, a manufacturer and baptised Jew married to Catholic Gretl, has moved up in the world. Gathered in the Merz apartment in a fashionable part of the city, Hermann’s extended family are at the heart of Tom Stoppard’s epic yet intimate drama. By the time we have taken leave of them, Austria has passed through the convulsions of war, revolution, impoverishment, annexation by Nazi Germany and – for Austrian Jews – the Holocaust in which 65,000 of them were murdered. It is for the survivors to pass on a story which hasn’t ended yet.
