Mirvish Productions will dim the marquee lights of all four of its Toronto theatres on Thursday, December 4th, at the traditional curtain time of 8 PM, to honor the life and unparalleled work of playwright Tom Stoppard, who died at the age of 88 on November 29th, 2025. The lights will remain dimmed for six minutes, marking the number of decades that Stoppard spent writing. Stoppard, widely considered one of the greatest playwrights in world theatre, had four of his celebrated plays produced at Mirvish theatres, mainly at the Royal Alexandra.
His works staged in Toronto include his first play, ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead’ (1966), which played the Royal Alex in 1969 and was remounted in 2024 at the CAA Theatre; ‘The Real Inspector Hound’ (1968), which starred Robert Vaughan in 1974; ‘The Real Thing’ (1982), which featured R.H. Thomson and Kate Trotter in 1985; and ‘Arcadia’ (1993), presented in 2014. Stoppard’s final and most personal play, ‘Leopoldstadt’ (2020), was set for its North American premiere at the Princess of Wales Theatre in 2022 before the Omicron variant forced all theatres to close. David Mirvish passionately praised the late playwright, stating, “Tom Stoppard’s work was unique and dazzling. In his plays he combined a vast curiosity about the world and its people with a passion for diverse subjects, resulting in works dramatic, comedic, philosophical and always surprising.” Mirvish added that “No one else in world theatre could equal his zest for life in all its complexities and his delight in all things theatrical. We have lost one of the giants.” Stoppard, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1997 and won an Oscar for the screenplay for Shakespeare in Love, left behind an unmatched six-decade career that began in Bristol as a theatre critic.