Tom Stoppard, Travesties

Julia Christine Kuehn (University of Hong Kong); Paul Smethurst (University of Hong Kong)

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 1974

Places

United Kingdom (Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

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Tom Stoppard's

Travesties

fictionalises a meeting between three important revolutionary characters who happened to be in Zurich in 1917: the communist leader Lenin, the Dadaist poet Tristan Tzara and James Joyce, the modernist writer. Henry Carr, a minor official at the British Consulate, relates the three men's interactions and conversations through his erratic memory. Carr was in real life associated with Joyce through acting the part of Algernon Moncrieff in Joyce's production of Oscar Wilde's

The Importance of Being Earnest

in Zurich in March 1918. Afterwards, there was a one-year lawsuit brought by Carr against Joyce for the reimbursement of expensive trousers and other accessories Carr had bought for the production. Eventually, Joyce won a countersuit for the cost of five tickets…

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3260 words

Citation: Kuehn, Julia Christine, Paul Smethurst. "Travesties". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 July 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8443, accessed 20 April 2024.]

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