Tom Stoppard, Britain's adept wordsmith who supplied us with Travesties, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Arcadia and Hapgood, is back with his latest, The Invention of Love, about the poet A.E. Houseman.

The play opened Oct. 1 at the Royal National Theatre's Cottesloe auditorium, and closed there Nov. 29 in order to reopen Dec. 20 at the larger Lyttleton Theatre in the same complex, where it is scheduled to play through April 1998.

Now knighted as Sir Tom Stoppard, the playwright examines the was unrequited homosexual love served as the engine for the 19th century British scholar's poetry, including "A Shropshire Lad."

Directed by Richard Eyre, the production stars John Wood as Houseman. The play also includes major writers of the period -- Oscar Wilde, John Ruskin, Walter Pater and others -- as characters.

A spokesperson for the RNT told Playbill On-Line Nov. 25 that there is "no news" yet on plans to take the production to New York or elsewhere. For tickets or information: 0171 928 2252.

-- By Robert Viagas