“Jumpers” is Stoppard’s 12th play coming on the heels of the major successes of Rosenkranz and Inspector Hound.  First performed in London by the National Theater Company at the Old Vic and starring Diana Rigg, it opened in NYC in 1974 with Brian Bendon and Jill Clayburgh. It was revived on Broadway in 2004 receiving a Tony nomination as best revival.  Its reception has always been mixed with markedly different opinions from the critics from one praising its “provocative discourse and devastatingly funny dialogue” while another found it dated.

The play revolves around four characters.  George is a philosophy professor struggling with the concept of morality; his wife Dotty who has apparently murdered George’s fellow logician professor; Archie, a dandy psychiatrist who comforts Dotty and provokes George; and Inspector Bones who is investigating the murder of one of the Jumpers, a group of philosophers who also dance, do gymnastics, and jump.

The dialogue is fast paced and ‘jumps’ from study to bedroom to hallway where the characters interact, pose questions, and provide answers.  The theme appears to be Stoppard’s exploration of whether moral behavior is an absolute or a relative concept. Are there universal laws of morality or is everything relative?  What is the ‘good’?  Zeno’s paradox makes a fine appearance as does the 1969 moon landing and the tortoise and the hare story.

Zany but provocative, it’s vintage Stoppard.