Sir Tom Stoppard was born Tomáš Sträussler in Zlín, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic) on July 3, 1937. As a child, he fled Nazi occupation as a refugee. He anglicized his name as “Tom Stoppard” after his mother’s second marriage to a British major in 1945, after the death of Thomas’s father. As an adult, Stoppard became a journalist and drama critic. He also began writing short radio plays. By 1960, Stoppard completed his first play, A Walk on the Water.

A 1964 Ford Foundation grant allowed Stoppard to write a one-act play that would evolve into Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, one of his most famous works. The play was staged at the 1966 Edinburgh Festival before a 1967 premiere at the National Theatre at the Old Vic. It won the 1968 Tony for Best Play. Two noteworthy plays were premiered in 1972 and 1974, Jumpers and Travesties, the latter of which won the 1976 Tony for Best Play. During the 1980s, Stoppard translated many eastern European plays into English. These absurdist works informed his writing.

Arcadia was written in 1993. The play premiered at the Royal National Theatre in a production directed by Trevor Nun. It starred Rufus Sewell, Felicity Kendal, Billy Nighy, and Harriet Walter.