| Zusammenfassung: | ABSTRACT: This article considers Tom Stoppard's latest play, Leopoldstadt, which premiered at Wyndham's Theatre London on 25 January 2020, and closed after eight weeks due to the London theatres shutting down because of coronavirus. The fate of the play mirrors its major preoccupations: the unexpected, the unpredictable, and their impact upon human beings. The article considers the drama's relationship to Stoppard's other work, to his life, and to its historical setting. The significance of the play's dates and its structure—from 1899 to 1924, then to 1938 and 1955, with a flashback to 1900—is discussed. The ideological discussions and reactions to anti-Semitism in the play are outlined, as are the characters and the way their personal fates are intertwined within the background of Viennese Jewry in the first half of the twentieth century. Finally, the article considers selected theatre reviewers who attended the initial performances.
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