Tom Stoppard’s plays include Arcadia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and The Coast of Utopia. He’s pictured above in London in 2017.

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Tom Stoppard’s plays include Arcadia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and The Coast of Utopia. He’s pictured above in London in 2017.

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For more than a half century, Tom Stoppard was one of the most acclaimed playwrights in the English-speaking theater. He has died at age 88. Stoppard won a Laurence Olivier Award and five Tony Awards for Best Play. His work, including Travesties, The Real Thing and The Invention of Love was known for its language, wit and intellectual curiosity.

Stoppard’s death was reported by his agent.

Stoppard wrote erudite plays that touched on a broad range of topics – from his 1966 absurdist comedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead about two minor characters from Hamlet — to his 1993 drama Arcadia which included dialogue about Chaos Theory and Garden Landscaping. But when Arcadia opened in New York, Stoppard told me his plays were always about people, not abstract ideas.

“I’m not some kind of intellectual who’s importing very special ideas into the unfamiliar terrain of the theater. I don’t see it like that at all,” he said. “There’s something about the way the plays are written about which makes people think that they’re somewhat exclusive. And an exclusive playwright is a contradiction in terms.”

In 1999, Stoppard won an Oscar — shared with co-writer Marc Norman — for his verbal gymnastics in their screenplay for Shakespeare in Love, starring Joseph Fiennes as the young playwright and Gwyneth Paltrow as his inspiration for Juliet.

Tom Stoppard in 1981.

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Tom Stoppard in 1981.

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English was not Stoppard’s first language. He was born Tomáš Sträussler in Czechoslovakia in 1937 to a Jewish family. When he was still a baby, his family fled to Singapore to escape the Nazis. When his father died, the family moved to India, where his mother remarried a British officer named Stoppard. In 1946, they settled in England. His family assimilated and Stoppard said he didn’t learn of his Jewish heritage until his 50s.

“It was a combination of my mother not looking backwards and liking to talk about the past, on the one hand,” Stoppard told Jeff Lunden in 2022. “On the other hand, there was my strange lack of curiosity. I’d been turned into a little English boy. I was very happy being a little English boy. I didn’t need to become somebody else. I already was somebody else.”

Stoppard never attended university. At 17, he began work as a journalist. Later he went on to become a theater critic, and finally a playwright.

“It’s a strange art form, isn’t it?” Stoppard mused during a rehearsal break in 2006. “There’s a lot of people in a large room, watching a few people at one end of the room dressing up and talking. And you’ve got to hear everything they say — you get to hear it once, you can’t turn the page back.”

Stoppard was talking about the difficulty of holding the audience’s attention through his epic nine-hour trilogy, The Coast of Utopia, about 19th-century Russian intellectuals. Movie star Ethan Hawke gave up seven months of more lucrative work to perform in The Coast of Utopia. He said the chance to read Stoppard’s lines was worth it.

“We’re used to being talked down to. We’re used to very simple ideas. We’re used to people not challenging us,” Hawke said. “I feel the great thing about watching Tom Stoppard, when you watch it, it makes you feel incredibly intelligent. Because you do get it. The ideas aren’t that complicated.”

In 1995, Stoppard said he loved the theater in all its forms.

“Things are done well, or they’re done not so well,” he said. “And that’s the only distinction which matters in the theater. I think that I consider myself to be at some place in the spectrum of entertainers. Theater is a popular art form. If I didn’t think that, I’d be trying to write some kind of book of essays perhaps. I don’t know. I love the theater. I’m a theater animal.”

And the theater loved him back. The adjective “Stoppardian” entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1978. It means to employ elegant wit while addressing philosophical concerns — in the style of Tom Stoppard.

In a statement from Buckingham Palace issued to reporters via WhatsApp on Saturday, King Charles said he and the Queen were “deeply saddened” by Stoppard’s death.

“A dear friend who wore his genius lightly, he could, and did, turn his pen to any subject, challenging, moving and inspiring his audiences, borne from his own personal history,” said King Charles. “Let us all take comfort in his immortal line: ‘Look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else.’ “

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Haley Kalil has recently been the topic of conversation mainly because of the video she uploaded from a trip with friends. The video clip is a hilarious compilation of fun and laughter with the model and her crew, not to mention some hilarious clothes, and a fall that the viewers will keep talking about. This kind of genuine content is a hallmark of Haley Kalil‘s social media presence.

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Haley Kalil is labeling her most recent trip a therapeutic one and on the whole, it is difficult to disagree with her point after watching the short clip. It is a video that instantly brings fun along with her friends Shayna Belen, Matthew Cancel, and Samantha Jaymes. There are such lyrics as “We just wanna see you shake that” and “Every day I’m shuffling” in the background music thus the video turns into a masterclass in having a good time. It is the kind of content that makes one want to be included in the group.

The video opens with the group looking fashionable and active. Nevertheless, the true astonishment occurs when the video gradually unfolds. There was a scene in which Haley experienced a minor mishap that instantly drew the viewers’ attention. One viewer said with amusement, “LMAO, THE WAY YOU FELL.” Such a genuine and spontaneous moment is what makes the video endearing. It is not about perfection; it is about living the moment and laughing at oneself.

Another thing that made the video notable and striking to the viewers was the fashion collaboration of the group. One witty commenter remarked, “Lol it seems like you all decided to match your coats.” Truly, at the end of the video, the whole crew is wearing identical denim jackets which convey a fashionable yet unified vibe that even caused minor interrogations among the commenters. A lot of people were asking, “Where did all the Jean jackets come from lol?” and “Where did you get those similar jackets?” It seems that Haley and her friends have unknowingly started a fashion trend, though she has previously been open about her own fashion fails.

The joyous and chaotic spirit of the trip was beautifully captured in the video. One fellow viewer, in reference to a friend who was in the video, humorously said, “lmaoooooo @samanthajaymes_ I know the last drink face all too well.” This reference to the universally familiar “end of the night” feeling was shared by many. Another user added to the hilarity by tracing the route, saying, “Started in front of an Irish pub; ended up falling down across the street from some nondescript bank.” The storytelling in the comments was almost like an extension of the video itself.

Amidst all the fun, there was a little bit of the opposite side when it came to praising Haley’s ability to maintain her cool. Someone remarked, “girl you ate in this,” and by this, he/she was referring to a contemporary compliment meaning she completely conquered the moment. The video even provoked nostalgia in some, one person saying, “Making me want to go back to drinking,” while another was just echoing, “🤭 how fun. I’m Haley after the last drink.”

But it was not only about slip-ups, the technical aspect was also recognized, one person stating, “I think the use of AI was very high in this video.” This suggests that the quick editing and the visually stimulating ways had a lot to do with the upbeat mood of the video which made it more than just a clip – a production. Her approach to content often includes a humorous take on beauty tropes.

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Haley Kalil’s post is a classic example of how the sharing of real and happy moments can lead to a positive wave of interaction. It was not a polished, filtered version of a vacation; instead, it was a dirty, real, funny, and somewhat disorganized journey with friends. The combination of the matching jackets, the comical fall, and the whole party-like atmosphere turned the simple travelogue into a hot topic. This reminds us that the best content often comes from just being yourself and having fun, and the internet loved every second of it in return. She has also been known to ask candid questions and stun followers with dramatic new looks.

Early on in Shih-Ching Tsou’s Left-Handed Girl, one of its protagonists, an adorable Taiwanese girl named I-Jing (Nina Ye), is told by her grandpa that her left-handedness is a curse. “Don’t use left-hand in my house,” he says to her, yanking a crayon from her left hand into her right and sending a bolt of fear through the impressionable 5-year-old. “Left hand is evil,” he scolds. “It belongs to the devil.” The premise of Netflix’s newest Mandarin-language film might seem trivial, but learning about her “devil’s hand” brings I-Jing a quiet shame that is difficult to shake. Internalizing an age-old superstition, I-Jing silently begins to navigate the bustling city of Taipei with her much weaker right-hand, which takes on a life of its own. What she doesn’t know is that the rest of her family has their own version of a “devil’s hand” too.

In Tsou’s charming solo directorial debut, I-Jing, her teenage sister and their mother have just moved back to Taipei after years away in the countryside. Their mother Shu-Fen (Janel Tsai), opens a noodle stand in the capital’s famous night markets in an attempt to start a new life for her family. But a fresh start is rarely an easy one. Day after day, Shu-Fen toils to keep her food stall and family afloat — trying to pay the stall’s rent while juggling the debt she accumulated from her ex-husband’s funeral, and taking care of her daughters, who couldn’t be more different. The youngest, I-Jing, is steeped in an innocent earnestness, while her older sister, I-Ann (Shih-Yuan Ma), carries the fierce determination of an angsty teen intent on proving she can support the family better than anyone else.

Tsou and longtime collaborator Sean Baker co-wrote and produced the project, and Baker edited. Their distinct style is abundant throughout Left-Handed Girl, which strikes a delicate balance between intimacy and playfulness in a story that centers those historically on the margins. The two have worked side-by-side since co-directing Take Out in 2004, with Tsou’s influence woven through films that launched Baker into the spotlight, from Tangerine to The Florida Project to Red Rocket. Shot entirely on iPhones, like 2015’s Tangerine, the film uses the city of Taipei as its canvas and shows its landscape through the lens of each of its characters. It’s a treat being immersed in the brightly-colored, and often overwhelming night market from the point of view of I-Jing, who interacts with each stall like it’s her personal playground before dashing off to the next one.

Nina Ye as I-Jing and Shih-Yuan Ma as I-Ann in Left-Handed Girl.

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Shih-Yuan Ma as I-Ann, Nina Ye as I-Jing and Janel Tsai as Shu-Fen in Left-Handed Girl.

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While Left-Handed Girl initially appears to center I-Jing and her cursed hand, the film pays equal attention to its female protagonists. Spanning multiple generations, Tsou offers the viewer a window into each character’s struggle between duty and desire, as they navigate a society where the personal largely remains private. Shu-Fen might be the caretaker of her three-unit family, but she remains the black sheep within her own. “A married daughter’s like water poured out,” her mother says to her after refusing to lend her daughter money, perpetuating a traditional belief that daughters are worthless once they are married. And during a family outing, Shu-Fen reluctantly opens up, only to have her sisters loudly bicker over her decisions as if they were their own.

Meanwhile, I-Ann spends most of her days at the betel nut stall, where she oscillates between flirting with older men for money, making snarky comments at the attractive young woman who just started working there, and sleeping with her sleazy boss. I-Ann’s stonewalled expression and high-pony attitude gives off the impression she doesn’t care about the job, and much less, her boss. But in moments of vulnerability, like after I-Ann attends a party with a former classmate who, unlike her, is attending college, cracks begin to appear in an otherwise tightly-wound facade. I-Ann’s commitment to and reluctance toward fulfilling her responsibilities are felt simultaneously in scenes of transit, as she whizzes through the streets and highways of Taipei on her scooter, en route to pick up her little sister, keep a watchful eye over the noodle stand, or sneak in her own small rebellions. I-Ann might scoff, but at the end of the day, she always shows up.

How much can a family bear before it begins to burst? Left-Handed Girl seeks to ask, as each character’s internal tensions bleed into broader family dynamics, culminating in more of an explosion than a slow unraveling. But perhaps the ultimate test of strength occurs when the dam breaks, Tsou seems to argue — when the water begins to flood, washing away old traditions and instead, creating something surprising and new.