Jumpers. Tom Stoppard

      Copyright © 1972 by Tom Stoppard

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Any members of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or publishers who would like to obtain permission to include the work in an anthology, should send their inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.

      CAUTION: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that this play is subject to a royalty. It is fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and all British Commonwealth countries, and all countries covered by the International Copyright Union, the Pan-American Copyright Convention, and the Universal Copyright Convention. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion picture, recitation, public reading, radio broadcasting, television, video or sound taping, all other forms of mechanical or electronic reproduction, such as information storage and retrieval systems and photocopying, and rights of translation into foreign languages, are strictly reserved.

      First-class professional, stock, and amateur applications for permission to perform it, and those other rights stated above, must be made in advance to Samuel French, Inc., 45 West 25th Street, New York, NY 10010.

      “Sentimental Journey” by Bud Green, Les Brown, and Ben Homer, copyright © 1944 by Morley Music Inc., is published in Great Britain by Edwin H. Morris & Co. Ltd., 15 St. George St., London Wl, from whom permission to perform it must be obtained.

      “Forget Yesterday” by Tom Stoppard and Marc Wilkinson copyright © 1972 by Josef Weinberger Ltd., 10 Rathbone Street, London Wl, England, from whom tape recordings of the song itself and the background track of “Sentimental Journey” as recorded by the National Theatre for the original production are available on application for use in other productions.

       Printed in the United States of America

      Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 73-21011

      eBook ISBN-13: 978-0-8021-9538-5

      Grove Press

      841 Broadway

      New York, NY 10003

       For Miriam

       Characters

      GEORGE

      DOROTHY

      ARCHIE

      BONES

      CROUCH

      SECRETARY

      8 JUMPERS who also play:

      SCOTT

      CLEGTHORPE

      and

      USHERS

      CHAPLAINS

      DANCERS

      The play is in two Acts and a

      Coda which follows the second act

      without interruption.

      Jumpers was first performed by the National Theatre Company at the Old Vic Theatre, London, on 2nd February 1972, when the cast was as follows:

      Directed by Peter Wood

      Designed by Patrick Robertson

       Author’s note

      In preparing previous plays for publication I have tried with some difficulty to arrive at something called a ‘definitive text’, but I now believe that in the case of plays there is no such animal. Each production will throw up its own problems and very often the solution will lie in some minor change to the text, either in the dialogue or in the author’s directions, or both. What follows is a basic version of Jumpers. The National Theatre production was mounted on a revolve stage and this fact alone was responsible for various small changes to the links between scenes. I have also included here the stage directions relating to the wall-sized television screen which the National Theatre was able to provide, but such a screen is not intended to be essential to the play’s workability. I also shortened the play slightly in ways which are not shown here.

      T.S.

      POSTSCRIPT (February 1973):… And indeed, after some months’ absence Jumpers returned to the National Theatre in a slightly altered form. This edition incorporates the changes because they seem to me an improvement on the original.