Stoppard: A playwright of comedy and chaos

British playwright Sir Tom Stoppard whose six-decade career was spent writing for the theatre, TV and radio, and film, died aged 88. His work is marked by verbal brilliance and structural dexterity

- 

Stoppard made his stage breakthrough with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which reimagined Shakespeare's Hamlet from the viewpoint of two hapless minor characters. A mix of tragedy and absurdist humor, it premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1966 and was staged at Britain's National Theatre, then run by Laurence Olivier, before moving to Broadway

Claim to fame

Stoppard made his stage breakthrough with