STOPPARD, Tom (b. 1937). Autograph manuscript rehearsal notes for the debut production of Arcadia at the National Theatre, n.p. [National Theatre, London], March 1993.

STOPPARD, Tom (b. 1937). Autograph manuscript rehearsal notes for the debut production of Arcadia at the National Theatre, n.p. [National Theatre, London], March 1993.

Approximately 46 pages in total, 295 x 210mm (except for two pages, 228 x 177mm), together c.38 pages of manuscript notes with another c.8 pages of annotated script pages, comprising script and production notes for Arcadia, chiefly for scenes 1, 2, 5 and 7, the script notes often showing variance from the published text for the play. Provenance: autograph notecard from Stoppard, 29 April 1993, giving the pages to the present owner, as ‘a few mememtoes of a pleasant rehearsal’.

Tom Stoppard’s rehearsal notes for the National Theatre’s 1993 production of Arcadia, offering intriguing insight into the genesis of perhaps the finest work by one of the great contemporary British playwrights. The script revisions that do not appear in the published version of the Arcadia script are of particular interest for the way they illustrate the continuing development of the play as the 13 April 1993 opening night at the National Theatre approached; they include lines such as that spoken by Hannah to Valentine in scene 7: ‘Reserve is not a neurosis, it’s a courtesy’.