The Gazette Books on Film series is back this spring with a series focused on the films and plays of Tom Stoppard.

Film screenings at the Regent alternate with wine-and-canape laden book discussions at the Gazette.

With the passing of Sir Tom Stoppard last November, the world lost its most celebrated playwright. Playful and intellectual, Stoppard’s work crossed books, the stage and the screen, keeping his audience on its toes, at once flattering our knowledge — perhaps persuading us we know more than we do—while also pulling the rug out from under — metaphysically and psychologically.

In March, we begin with Stoppard’s stunning 1967 debut, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, both reading the play, an absurdist tale of two minor characters from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and watching the author-directed film of 1990. This is a private screening as the film is very hard to obtain and not licensed for public viewings.

In April and May, we watch Brazil (1985), a celebrated, hilarious, and never-more-relevant take on Orwell’s 1984, co-written with Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam. We follow this with a reading of what might be called Stoppard’s utopian play, Arcadia (1993), set in the golden age of Edwardian England.

We close with two thematically linked productions of the later 1990s: Shakespeare In Love, for which Stoppard won the best screenplay Oscar, and Stoppard’s brilliant exploration of the life and loves of poet A. E. Houseman, The Invention of Love.

All are welcome! Passes for the complete series of three films and three book discussions are $125. Individual film-and-book discussion passes are $40. Or just go see the films at the Regent. Passes available at: https://picton-books-on-film.paperform.co/

Picton’s Books & Company will stock the plays and of course check the library.