Tom Stoppard, Jumpers

Doris Mader (Karl-Franzens-Universit)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1972

Places

United Kingdom (Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

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On its 1972 première,

Jumpers

– with its generic polyphony and impressive theatricality – may have given us the most opulent of all of Stoppard’s

coups de théâtre

. The play opens with a bizarre scenario, featuring the mock-striptease of a female character swinging in and out of sight on a huge chandelier; another intoning various songs that become drowned out by the droning of aeroplanes overhead; and a group of eight acrobats who complete this truly theatrical opening tableau with their “jumping, tumbling, somersaulting” (18) at a London Mayfair Residence: The Radical Liberals have taken over the state and are euphorically celebrating their landslide victory. This initial physical scenario thematically and structurally prepares the ground for the main…

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2625 words

Citation: Mader, Doris. "Jumpers". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 March 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4256, accessed 11 May 2024.]

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