Jumpers

JUMPERS

P
LAYS

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
*
Enter a Free Man
*
The Real Inspector Hound
*
After Margritte
*
Jumpers
*
Travesties
*
Dirty Linen and New-Found-Land
*
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
*
Night and Day
Dogg's Hamlet and Cahoot's Macbeth
*
The Real Thing
Rough Crossing
Hapgood
Arcadia
Indian Ink
The Invention of Love
*
Voyage: The Coast of Utopia Part I
*
Shipwreck: The Coast of Utopia Part II
*
Salvage: The Coast of Utopia Part III
*

T
ELEVISION
S
CRIPTS

A Separate Peace
Teeth
Another Moon Called Earth
Neutral Ground
Professional Foul
Squaring the Circle

R
ADIO
P
LAYS

The Dissolution of Dominic Boot
“M” Is for Moon Among Other Things
If You're Glad I'll Be Frank
Albert's Bridge
Where Are They Now?
Artist Descending a Staircase
The Dog It Was That Died
In the Native State

S
CREENPLAYS

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
Shakespeare in Love (with Marc Norman)

F
ICTION

Lord Malquist & Mr. Moon

Copyright © 1972 by Tom Stoppard

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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

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

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.

P
OSTSCRIPT
(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. The main alteration consists of having the screens placed round the bed for the
first
bedroom scene in Act Two, rather than for the final bedroom scene, with a consequent adjustment of the dialogue. This gives a better shape to the Act, and I gratefully record that for this idea, and for much else, I am indebted to Peter Wood whose insight and inventiveness were a crucial influence on
Jumpers
throughout rehearsals. The other most noticeable change is the disappearance of Scott from the Coda, a more difficult decision but I think on balance the right one; he added little and delayed much.

There are three playing areas, the
STUDY
,
the
BEDROOM
,
and the
HALL
.

There is also a
SCREEN
,
hopefully forming a backdrop to the whole stage. Film and slides are to be back-projected on to this Screen on a scale big enough to allow actors and furniture to mask the images without significantly obscuring them
.

It is an essential requirement of the play that the Bedroom can be blacked out
completely
while the action continues elsewhere. Where this cannot be achieved by lighting alone, it might be an idea to put the Bedroom in a permanent gauze box; but raising and lowering a gauze screen is not encouraged. Another possibility, where the facility exists would be to put the Bedroom on a revolve
.

For the purpose of the stage directions given hereafter, I am assuming the following layout
.

The
FRONT DOOR
is Upstage Centre. The
HALL
is right-angled, c passage coming downstage from the Front Door to the footlights turning Stage Right along the front of the stage and disappearing intc the wing at Downstage Right, where it leads to unseen Kitchen Living Room, etc
.

The
STUDY
occupies the whole area stage Left of the Hall and Fron Door
.

The
BEDROOM
occupies the rest of the stage, i.e., the area inside th reverse-L-shape of the Hall
.

The apartment belongs to
GEORGE
,
a Professor of Moral Philosophy married to a prematurely-retired musical-comedy actress of some re nown
,
DOROTHY
.
The general standard of living suggested by the fla owes more, one would guess, to musical comedy than moral philosophy and this is especially true of the Bedroom which is lushly carpeted an
includes among its furnishings a television set remotely-controlled by an electronic portable switch; a record player; two elegant straight-backed chairs and one comfortable upholstered chair; a globular gold-fish-bowl containing one goldfish; and a four-poster bed which can be enclosed at will by the drapes adorning its corners. The effect is elegant, feminine, expensive. The Bedroom has two doors, one leading into the wings at Stage Left (the unseen Bathroom), and the second into the Hall. This latter door must be sturdily fixed. It opens inwards, the hinges upstage, so that when this door is wide open the inside of it is hidden from the audience. The room also has a french window, guarded on the exterior by a mock-balcony or balustrade; it overlooks streets and sky, for the flat is in an upper floor of big old-fashioned but newly redecorated and converted mansion
.

The
STUDY
contains a day-bed against the upstage wall, bookshelves above the bed, a desk and chair for the Secretary, and a bigger desk for George placed against the footlights. On the wings-side of the room is a tall cupboard or wardrobe, and a small wash-basin with mirror. The room contains, somewhere, a tape-recorder; a bow and quiver of arrows, together with an archery target about a yard in diameter; an electric typewriter for the Secretary to use; a smallish wooden box such as a small tortoise might live in, and a large wooden box such as a rabbit might live in. There is a door into the Hall. The window would be in the fourth wall, but not above the desk for that space is occupied by a large (though imaginary) mirror. George's desk, when we discover it, is a clutter of books and manuscript, and a tumbler containing pencils
.

However, none of the above is visible for the first few minutes of the play, for which is required an empty space
….

GEORGE
is between 40 and 50, and still attractive enough to make it perfectly plausible that he should be married to
DOTTY
who is ten to fifteen years younger and very beautiful indeed
.

ARCHIE
is a dandy, as old as George or older
.

INSPECTOR BONES
is middle-aged and carelessly dressed
.

CROUCH
is old and small and a bit stooped
.

The
SECRETARY
is young and attractive but poker-faced, almost grim, even on her first appearance, in which she performs as a stripper
.