I love the word “maturity” in this profile of Tom Stoppard by William Langley:
For all this, it might be fairer to call Stoppard a libertarian than a Conservative. In the 1970s, when the big names of British theatre – all of predictably uniform Leftist sympathies – reserved their denunciations for the United States and its supposedly nefarious doings in places like Nicaragua, Stoppard was quietly active among the dissident groups of the Eastern Bloc. In part this was attributable to his roots, but it speaks, equally, to the maturity of his thinking.
“…quietly active among the dissident groups of the Eastern Bloc.”
Too bad he wasn’t vocally active.
Well, he wasn’t as strident as Pinter, if that is what you mean. He did, however, speak out during those years rather often; “Professional Foul” (1977) was set there; he spoke on panels about Charter 77, etc. If your argument, Lex, is that he should have returned to the country and language of his genes but not of his even his earliest childhood and fight the good fight, then you are expecting, I think, a pretty suicidal view of life. (A take on his new play.)
I did like the quote about Harold Pinter and the Comedy Theater (it’s near the end).
My argument, if it is even that, is that the more people who supported the Eastern bloc dissidents, the better, and more attention they cast on the plight of the dissidents, the better. Of course, to do so came with professional costs in the Wests, since supporting dissidents in the Soviet bloc was often treated as “right wing” and hence damnable.