The Hard Problem is a tour de force, exploring fundamental questions of how we experience the world, as well as telling the moving story of a young woman whose struggle for understanding her own life and the lives of others leads her to question the deeply held beliefs of those around her.
Hilary, a young psychology researcher at the Krohl Institute for Brain Science, is nursing a private sorrow and a troubling question. She and other researchers at the institute are grappling with what science calls the "hard problem"--if there is nothing but matter, what is consciousness? What Hilary discovers puts her fundamentally at odds with her colleagues, who include her first mentor and one-time lover, Spike; her boss, Leo; and the billionaire founder of the institute, Jerry. Hilary needs a miracle, and she is prepared to pray for one.
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Another win for Leopoldstadt- Patrick Marber wins best direction of a play. He says he feels “a little self conscious” and thanks producer Sonia Friedman & writer Tom Stoppard, who he describes as his hero. https://t.co/jlEqxM2bxZ
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I saw Matthew Macfadyen on stage in The Pain in the Itch - tracks - and Kieran Culkin in This is Our Youth - also tracks. But the only time I saw Brian Cox in a play he was the unrepentant Communist Max in Tom Stoppard's Rock'n'Roll... Actually kind of tracks too in its own way.
Publishing Director of Raven Books. Lover of the gripping & the gothic, the contemporary & the cunning. Comprehensive school girl in literary world.
Oh how I love this: all possible plots by major authors https://t.co/RH4zA6DLfY Thomas Hardy: Lies, lies, misery, lies, suicide, rape, and corn prices. Tom Stoppard You are trapped within a play within a play within a play within a gcse drama syllabus.
"Mr. Stoppard is, as always, an adept craftsman. . . . [He] has provided food for thought, and not just a tasting menu but a full, footnoted banquet."--Ben Brantley, New York Times
"Tom Stoppard [is] the English-speaking world's brainiest playwright."--Wall Street Journal
"Oozes learning. . . . [Stoppard] proves that it is possible to construct a tight 100 minutes of drama around neuroscientific conceits. . . . He has succeeded . . . this is a play to admire."--Economist
"[The Hard Problem] displays intact the dramatist's remarkable ability to synthesize complex knowledge into wittily metaphorical dialogue. . . . Demand for this brainy, funny, and touching play will long outstrip supply."--New Statesman
"Tom Stoppard's first play for nine years is typically witty--an intellectually charged piece that delights in the slippery nature of language and pulses with interesting ideas."--London Evening Standard
"100 minutes of condensed brain-ache, marbled by wit and some camisoled sexiness. . . . Admirably high-minded . . . It succeeds, in my view triumphantly."--Daily Mail
"Stimulating . . . absorbing . . . A rich, ideas-packed work that . . . offers endless stimulation and represents, like so much of [Stoppard's] work, a search for absolute values and a belief in the possibility of selfless virtue."--Guardian
"The dialogue is flashily impressive . . . it leaves one panting with admiration."--Spectator (UK)