Past in Present in STC’s ‘Leopoldstadt’

Would past world events make you think differently about your life if it “turn[ed] out that you [were] Jewish?” It certainly did for now-English playwright Tom Stoppard, born 1937 in Czechoslavakia, who wrote in his 2024 essay, ‘On Turning Out to Be Jewish,’ “I feel no more Jewish than I felt Czech when, 22 years ago, I went to Prague for a week to do my English bit for Charter 77.”

Yet, upon finding out more about all of his ancestors who died at the hands of the Germans, Stoppard, née Sträussler, felt their story had to be told. And that story is now on stage at the Shakespeare Theatre: Leopoldstadt.

While it isn’t the lighthearted holiday romp that so many audiences are likely craving right now, “Leopoldstadt” is an intensely emotional and human experience that is probably more in line with what we should be seeking. It’s an epic family story that aches and surprises. And it has some of the most beautiful costuming and staging the STC stage has seen!

The story is complicated – as so many family dramas are – and spans several generations in its storytelling. To start at (almost) the beginning, audiences have to understand that Leopoldstadt is the name of the old Jewish ghetto in Vienna. But at the opening point of the play, the family has risen above this — an integral and celebrated part of Viennese society — looking forward to prosperity for Vienna and their families, though that meant different things to some of them.

And then the world of these well-to-do characters changes in the darkest of ways.

Over decades of assimilation, including some religious conversion, marriage, possibly (very possibly) an extramarital affair – Leopoldstadt is the story of the fates of those much farther down the family tree.

Leopoldstadt runs through December 29, 2024, at STC’s Harman Hall. Runtime: Two hours and 37 minutes, with one 15 minute intermission.