Rough Crossing

by Tom Stoppard (Translator), Ferenc Molnár

Comedy Tom Stoppard, from an original play by Ferenc Molnar 5 male, 1 female The co authors, the composer and most of the cast of a comedy destined for Broadway are simultaneously trying to finish and rehearse the play while crossing the Atlantic on an ocean liner. Tom Stoppard's hilarious play has been freely adapted from Ferenc Molnar's classic farce Jatek a Kastelyban. "Adaptation in Stoppard's terms means finding a sympathetic text and using it as a s

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre, Humor, Hungarian Literature

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1926

About the author

Sir Tom Stoppard is a Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and political freedom, often delving into the deeper philosophical thematics of society. Stoppard has been a playwright of the National Theatre and is one of the most internationally performed dramatists of his generation. He was knighted for his contribution to theatre by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997.
Born in Czechoslovakia, Stoppard left as a child refugee, fleeing imminent Nazi occupation. He settled with his family in Britain after the war, in 1946, having spent the previous three years (1943–1946) in a boarding school in Darjeeling in the Indian Himalayas. After being educated at schools in Nottingham and Yorkshire, Stoppard became a journalist, a drama critic and then, in 1960, a playwright.
Stoppard's most prominent plays include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966), Jumpers (1972), Travesties (1974), Night and Day (1978), The Real Thing (1982), Arcadia (1993), The Invention of Love (1997), The Coast of Utopia (2002), Rock 'n' Roll (2006) and Leopoldstadt (2020). He wrote the screenplays for Brazil (1985), Empire of the Sun (1987), The Russia House (1990), Billy Bathgate (1991), Shakespeare in Love (1998), Enigma (2001), and Anna Karenina (2012), as well as the HBO limited series Parade's End (2013). He directed the film Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), an adaptation of his own 1966 play, with Gary Oldman and Tim Roth as the leads.
He has received numerous awards and honours including an Academy Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, and five Tony Awards. In 2008, The Daily Telegraph ranked him number 11 in their list of the "100 most powerful people in British culture". It was announced in June 2019 that Stoppard had written a new play, Leopoldstadt, set in the Jewish community of early 20th-century Vienna. The play premiered in January 2020 at Wyndham's Theatre. The play went on to win the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play and later the 2022 Tony Award for Best Play.

Reviews

[Neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not quite a full-on farce, not quite a romantic comedy, but somewhere between. Two playwrights try to get revisions done during an Atlantic crossing, but the love triangle between their two stars and a young composer gets in the way. The show is stolen, along with about fifty glasses of cognac, by a steward who may be a bit clueless about his new job, but is wise to everything else. Highly entertaining... I look forward to seeing it staged someday.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tom Stoppard is not just a genius but he's a comic and a linguist too. Picture the cast of an iffy, badly-in-need-of-polishing musical aboard a ship being waited on by an iffy steward who knows nothing about ships but starts to learn the lingo with a vengeance, scene by scene, as well as being the main player in a steady line of puns and sight gags involving cognac. Add a new couple and a broken up couple whose old attraction flares up again and gets them in trouble with the pissed off composer as two writers battle for ascension. I'm sure there's a theme here but was too busy laughing to care.

[Nikolett Ballai · Rating 5 out of 5]

A magyar irodalom és színház egyik legértékesebb gyöngyszeme. Nem csoda, hogy előbb mutatták be New Yorkban, mint itthon. Minden évben érdemes elolvasni.
Nincs jobb kikapcsolódás, mint kézbe venni ezt a kötetet és egy pohár itallal kényelmesen elhelyezkedni a kedvenc olvasó sarkunkban. Másfél óra után egy kicsit könnyebb a szívünk és garantáltan jobb a közérzetünk. Receptre írnám fel 14-től felfelé minden korosztálynak.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This play is over-the-top ridiculous. I liked reading it, but it’s definitely a play meant to be seen.

In an Italian villa, a playwright and two of his cohorts overhear an actress (who happens to be involved with one of the cohorts) and her former paramour reigniting their affair. To prevent disaster, the playwright comes up with a plan: writing a play and claiming that’s what the actress and her paramour were ‘rehearsing.’ Tremendous fun but the written form can only do the humor partial justice. Recommended.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a lovely comedic play with some great writing-showcasing that Stoppard really is one of the great playwrights of our time. I just loved the characters in this play and could picture it all playing out on stage as I read it. I really liked how it was so self aware yet was smart at the same time. The characters were over the top without being hammy. This play made me smile a lot as I read it which is always a good thing.

[Dorottya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Az igazat megvallva láttam már színházban, és nagyon nem tetszett az előadás, így kicsit félve álltam neki a drámának... és nagyon pozitívan kellett csalódnom. Ami a színházi előadásban a poros, eltúlzott színészi játéknak és hangsúlyozásnak köszönhetően gagyi poénnak tűnt, itt sokkal jobban szórakoztatott. Imádtam a mű humorát, a pergő, okos, szurkálódó párbeszédeket.

[Tikhon Jelvis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Certainly funny, but seemed superficial, especially compared to other Tom Stoppard plays I've read.

It seems like it would be a lot more funny seen rather than read; had I watched it performed, I'd probably have it at fours stars instead of three. It's a play where timing is crucial in a way that's hard to imagine as you're reading.

Still wouldn't be very deep though.

[Ilias · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mean, so. I was not okay and I read this book and now I am more okay. So that's worth something. It was clever and funny and I enjoyed it. Obviously I am not sure that I Understood what it was Saying, you know? And I am not overjoyed with happy endings via deception? But. It was good and it took me out of my head and I laughed.

[Kylos · Rating 3 out of 5]

it's like a sitcom before there were sitcoms.
elements that go into a great episode of thee's company, more or less, and all on stage.
smart but family appropriate.
you need to stage a comedy for everyone? try this one on for size.

[Kristen Gongora · Rating 4 out of 5]

We happen to be doin this show at The Shakespeare Theatre this season, and it is a delightful piece of peach-flavord fluff.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am Natasha bebe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Carolyn Page · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay. When I checked this out I thought it was an original play by Stoppard, but then I found it was an adaptation of "The Play's the Thing". Now, why another adaptation was required, I don't know. This is an indifferent version of excellent source material. I much prefer the P.G. Wodehouse translation, as opposed to this musical-ized, written-in-the-2010s-and-set-in-the-30s nonsense. Stoppard puts in a fun gag with Adam's speech defect, but most of the jokes are either unoriginal or unfunny. (Putting in a joke about a character's looney mother being in jail for, among other things, attempted incestuous rape of a minor is NOT FUNNY WHY would you think that's funny).

[Liana Kapelke-Dale · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review of this play MAY be biased by the fact that last summer I saw a frothy, lithe, sparkling performance of it that I wanted to bottle up in a jar and carry around with me. It's hilarious - witty AND silly -, smart, and accessible. I highly recommend it even if you're not a fan of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, because it couldn't be more different. SO good.

[Derek · Rating 2 out of 5]

I saw this staged at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth, this week.

It was a beautiful set, well acted, and funny. But it's so ... meh.

Not what I expect from Stoppard.

[David Eden · Rating 5 out of 5]

A witty and fun script, adapted from the Hungarian play of the 1920s.

[Bori1020]

Intelligens humor és helyzetkomikum jellemzi.

[Haaze · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining and humorous, yet also so intelligent in its play within a play approach that it loses its connection to reality. A bit of a mental exercise rather than an enjoyable play.

[Kroó Boglár · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imádom. Nagyon tetszik a színműben a színmű a színműben. Saját magát írja a dráma, és az utolsó felvonás VALAMI FANTASZTIKUS. Humoros de mégis tanulságos!

[Daniel Gallimore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful dialogue and comic brio makes me want to read more Stoppard.

[Meg Brewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great humour I’d love to see live. The structure of the play within the play was a little unclear at some points. Otherwise great.

[Julia Kafil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually thought it's hysterical. 4.5 stars