Artist Descending a Staircase is a radio play by Tom Stoppard, first broadcast by the BBC in 1972, and later adapted for live theatre. The play centres on a murder mystery involving an artist who dies from falling down a set of stairs.[1] The play is a humorous exploration of the meaning and purpose of art. The title alludes to Marcel Duchamp's 1912 painting Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2.[2]