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Product Description
Product Description
The Incredible Radical Liberal Jumpers are a team of acrobatic professors of philosophy, whose absurd gymnastic displays reflect a bewildering world where logic has confounded belief in moral absolutes. In this dark, exuberant comedy, Stoppard brilliantly parodies the philosophy lecture, the detective thriller, the comedy of manners and the Whitehall farce, to follow a philosopher's doomed flight to prove the existence of God in the face of an indifferent universe.
This is the definitive text of Tom Stoppard's celebrated comedy.
'A dazzling, hilarious and honestly benevolent work, which creates a dramatic structure from a forbidding diversity of materials.' The Times
About the Author
Tom Stoppard was born in 1937 in Czechoslovakia. His early years were spent in Singapore, India and, from 1946, England, after his mother married an officer in the British Army. Leaving school at seventeen, Stoppard worked as a reporter in Bristol, before moving to London to work as a theatre critic and feature writer. During this period he began to write plays for radio and for the stage and published his only novel, Lord Malquist and Mr Moon. His first major success, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, was produced in London in 1967 at the Old Vic after critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Festival. Subsequent plays include Enter a Free Man, The Real Inspector Hound, Jumpers, Travesties, Night and Day, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (with Andre Previn), After Magritte, Dirty Linen, The Real Thing, Hapgood, Arcadia, Indian Ink, The Invention of Love, the trilogy The Coast of Utopia and Rock 'n' Roll. His radio plays include If You're Glad, I'll Be Frank, Albert's Bridge, Where Are They Now?, Artist Descending a Staircase, The Dog It Was That Died and In the Native State. Work for television includes Professional Foul and Squaring the Circle. His film credits include Empire of the Sun, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, which he also directed, Shakespeare in Love (with Marc Norman) and Enigma.$$$In August 2002 the Royal National Theatre in London premièred Stoppard's trilogy - Voyage, Shipwreck and Salvage - three sequential self-contained plays that comprise The Coast of Utopia.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This was my first taste of Tom Stoppard's work, and it had me hooked. The hero of this farce, George, is the Professor of Moral Philosophy and is attempting to debate the existance of a moral absolute - God. Unfortunately, Duncan McFee, a jumper and his opposition for the debate about God, is shot dead. George is blissfully unaware of this, tucked away in his office, more concerned about the disappearance of his specially trained hare, Thumper. However, when Inspector Bones comes to investigate, this leads to some very amusing cross-communication. Jumpers is exquisitely organised chaos, which manages to incorporate sparkling wit, mind-boggling phisics and philosophy to produce a remarkable play, ending in a hysterically funny coda. The characters are all vivid in their eccentricities, from Dottie, his wife and prematurely retired singer who really is dotty, to Archie, doctor, lawyer, philosopher (George's peer) and gymnast, who spends generally too much time in Dottie's bedroom. Due to Stoppard's skill at writing in a way which is easy to visualise, it is highly enjoyable just to read, without wathing a production, but if you get theh chance to see it, do. It is the funniest play I have read in a long time, best summed up by George's observation, 'The close assosiation between gymnastics and philosophy is, I believe, unique to this university.'
Format:Paperback
In Jumpers, Tom Stoppard was humiliating the pompous civilization that overanalyzes, deconstructs, and builds ridiculous rules and structures instead of dealing with reality. The line "Aetheism is just a crutch for non believers to deal with the existence of God" caught it beautifully. By using the tool of Brits on the moon at several points, he said that if you take people out of the environment/context, they revert to selfish acts without benefit of cover. The pretense is gone. The astronaut at the trial didn't challenge anything; he just agreed and kept going. Similarly, Greystoke, a pure work of fiction, was the perfect embodiment of pompous manners and class structure, and was dismissed. The real wild man was the judge, a former caretaker, who had no qualifications, and ran the whole proceeding into the ground. As The Common Man (whose hobby was philosophy!), he told us how off course we really are. And despite all George Moore's philosophising and analyzing and caring, it was he who killed his hare, he who killed his tortoise, and of course he who killed his marriage, by refusing to defend it. He lost it all because his mind was focused on idiotic rationalizations. The vice chancellor (or chancellor of vice) was the "suit" in all this. When he spoke at the trial, he uttered total gibberish, and the crowd roared with approval. He was clearly what was wrong with everything, and of course, he was running it all. Meanwhile, The archbishop made sense and was disposed of, same for Greystoke, and for Bones. Meanwhile, George, whose night this was supposed to be, didn't get to utter a word. Then, at the end, the wife was sent to the moon, and was lifted above everyone else. And that's how it ended. She had a miserable time - unappreciated intellect, unsuccessful career, sham of a marriage - and all covered by her position in society...her husband, her relationship with the vice chancellor...Clearly, she needed to get out of it all and be herself, and the only place she could do that was on the old man-in-the-moon style moon of pre astronaut days. So there was actually method to the madness, and it was entertaining to boot. It was all very British humor which I really appreciated, and the similarities to the final episode of the Prisoner were too many to ignore. By the way, Jumpers are what shrinks call suicidals, and the fact they all wore yellow must have meant they refused to deal with reality, hiding behind their philosophy instead of dealing with it. I kept seeing Robbie Coltrane as George. He really would have made the play. And that reminds me: the female lead was first played by Diana Rigg. Imagine how different THAT would have been! I would have loved to have seen that. LOTS of food for thought in Jumpers. Loved it.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
7 reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Witty, Intelligent, and Fun
3 Sep 2000
Format:Paperback
As with so many of Stoppard's plays, this one seems to operate on multiple levels of reality. On the one hand we have a network of philosphers looking for the essence of morality, divinity, and community. On the other, a failed actress has comitted murder and is trying to escape the consequences of her actions while committing adultery at the same time. All of this takes place in a reality that is not our own, but isn't far from it. Stoppard treats these subjects as he treats most of the subjects of his plays: with humor, cleverness, and irony. Stoppard creates a philospher who is so wrapped up in preparing a speech on morality that he is completely unaware of the murder and infidelity that are so obviously happening within his own home. A police officer manages to overlook these same problems due to his obsession with the murderer's past career as an actress. Throughout the play these kind of juxtapositions take place as each character seeks to ignore the reality around him/her as he/she seeks desperately to create his/her own reality. Stopard presents all of this with his usual blend of wit and charm, making Jumpers another solid addition to his body of work.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
a tongue in cheek look at philosophy today
30 Oct 1998
Format:Paperback
Stoppard brilliantly illuminates the absurdity of philosophy's retreat from the real world into the world of academia. His lampooning of the Logical Positivists is relentless and sometimes subtle. Throughout most of the play George is preparing to defend the existence of Morality and Good, all the while ignoring the dead body rotting in his bedroom. This is a must read for anyone caught up in, or disenchanted by, philosophy's detachment from real world application.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Moral philosophy: pros and cons. Brilliant
15 April 1998
Format:Paperback
I first read this ten years ago when I sided with George Moore and thought it was brilliant. Now I reread it and find myself discovering Richard Rorty in the character of Archie, and not so sure where my sympathies lie. I guess that's what's best about Stoppard: he argues convincingly on both sides. As for the play, it starts out as a whodunnit but by about page 20 you know you're never going to find out and that it doesn't matter. The jokes are great, the philosophy first class, and the coda is even moving. If you like Sophie's World, or any of those joke-intro-philosophy books then this is one better.
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