The Invention of Love
Tom Stoppard
A poignant, intellectual drama focusing on the life and death of the poet and scholar A.E. Housman. The play begins with an elderly Housman being ferried across the Styx by Charon, where he looks back on his younger self at Oxford. It explores his unrequited love for a fellow student and his dedication to Latin scholarship. Themes of Victorian morality, the trial of Oscar Wilde, and the invention of romantic love in literature are woven together. It is a deeply moving meditation on the pain of a life lived through books rather than emotional fulfillment.
A.E. Housman (Old): The cynical, brilliant, and emotionally repressed scholar who reflects on his life’s failures and successes from the banks of the River Styx after death. A.E. Housman (Young): A passionate, idealistic Oxford student whose discovery of Latin poetry coincides with his agonizing, secret love for his athletic classmate, Moses Jackson. Moses Jackson: The charismatic, heterosexual object of Housman’s lifelong affection, whose simple friendship stands in stark contrast to the poet’s intense and complex emotional inner world.
First Performance: 1997, at Cottesloe Theatre (National Theatre), London
Widely praised for its emotional depth and scholarly wit; won the Evening Standard Award for Best Play.
Original Actors: John Wood, Paul Rhys