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Culture vultures

Get tips on theatre and art from other Mumsnetters on our Culture forum.

iSage · 29/11/2025 18:02

My dad just told me this on the phone. Such an influential figure. RIP.

Dressered · 29/11/2025 18:02

He was brilliant! His plays and his screenplays are so funny. He famously had a long long affair with Felicity Kendal and they were just reuniting for a revival of his play Indian Ink.

LlynTegid · 29/11/2025 18:08

I enjoyed a revival of The Real Thing last year, and Indian Ink is at the Hampstead Theatre shortly.

I did not know of his work on Shakespeare in Love.

May he rest in peace.

Calling · 29/11/2025 18:08

That is a shame. I enjoyed 'Rosencranz and Guildenstern are dead' at school.

socialdilemmawhattodo · 29/11/2025 18:10

Arcadia is back at the Old Vic next year.

Cynic17 · 29/11/2025 18:10

One of the all-time greats, but I also didn't know about "Shakespeare in Love", or that he was often brought in to polish up Hollywood movie scripts.

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Perfidia · 29/11/2025 20:54

He was probably the primary force in my late teens that propelled me into a lifelong devotion to theatre. I saw Rozencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead in the very late 1970s (I though it was at The Round House in Chalk Farm but Chat GPT suggests probably the Young Vic) and somehow found myself sitting next to Miriam Stoppard. I vaguely remember watching Arcadia in Bath; and seeing or hearing possibly every other play he wrote either on TV or on the radio. And once, stepping into Harvey Nichols, I passed him standing in the entrance lobby, glancing at his watch. About half an hour later I stepped out and he was still waiting - as the aforementioned Ms Kendall arrived in a flurry of apologies.

Strange to realise he’s gone.

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FourChimneys · 29/11/2025 20:59

A friend and I have been reminiscing today, we studied R and G Are Dead at school and loved it. I still have my much annotated copy, I'm going to read it again tonight.

Rip Tom Stoppard.

Perfidia · 29/11/2025 21:35

It has given every subsequent viewing of a production of Hamlet across the last forty years an extra, piercing pain, certainly.

Enjoy your re-reading, @FourChimneys.

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GellerYeller · 29/11/2025 21:51

Loved Rozencrantz and Guildernstern are Dead, since my A Levels. I also still have my very dog eared copy.
DH frequently quotes Shakespeare in Love and his usual viewing choice is anything involving disasters, nuclear submarines or car chases.
Thankyou Tom 💐.

myrtleWilson · 30/11/2025 10:47

Another who studied R&G at school and loved it ever since. RIP Tom

DarkEyedSailor · 30/11/2025 10:50

How sad, I didn't think he was that age for some reason- although I must have known he would be! RIP. Thank you.

Thewalrusandthecarpenter · 30/11/2025 11:09

Loved all his work, especially Travesties. Such a talented man.

PatienceOfEngels · 05/12/2025 06:52

Marina Hyde was talking about him in the Rest is Entertainment podcast this week.

I saw The Real Inspector Hound in the 90s as a student (in a double bill with Peter Shaffer's Black Comedy - both with David Tennant).

Just ordered some of his plays and a biography.

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