Word: hapgood
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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There's a radiant moment in Tom Stoppard's Hapgood , which opened in revival last week at Manhattan's Lincoln Center, when Kerner, a Russian physicist and spy, celebrates the littleness of atoms. The public, he explains to the woman he loves, simply doesn't comprehend how minuscule the particles truly are. He tells her, "I could put an atom into your hand for every second since the world began, and you would have to squint to see the dot of atoms in your palm." Some men offer their beloved the moon. Kerner offers his a speck in her palm...
...paradox, might be rendered as: Who sees littlest sees furthest. Ever since he became internationally famous while still in his 20s for his philosophical farce Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966), Stoppard has been accused of excessive cleverness -- of having a big mind but a small heart. At bottom Hapgood insists that this division is artificial. As Kerner says, "Every atom is a cathedral...
...Stoppard play has been seen on Broadway, not because he hasn't been working or has lost his arch wit and narrative originality, but because commercial producers fear that his learned , tragicomedies demand too much of audiences intellectually and indulge them too little emotionally. Stoppard's Hapgood mingled a spy story, a love story, games of mistaken identity and reflections on physics, and has never had a major U.S. production. The same fate may well await his new play, although it is by far the best from any British writer in years...
...Lost Farm" is painted on the mailbox at Will Hapgood's place in Bolton, Mass. and if you aren't trying to reach his property you may well be lost. The road is not a main thoroughfare in town. When we parked and walked towards the house, a short, wizard-like figure dressed in blue jeans, hiking boots and a T-shirt hailed us from where he was working in the garage. "Y'all come in your Volkswagens?" he shouted. That was Will...