The Real Inspector Hound and Other Plays

In 'The Real Inspector Hound', neither the lampooning of the country-house murder-mystery warhorse, nor the digs at shallow and venal theatre critics, nor the use of Ionesco's dramatic anti-logic to warp the structure and language of the play, is particularly original or ambitious. Two critics with their own personal and professional axes to grind sit in an auditorium mirroring 'us' while watching and commenting on a wretchedly cliched 'Mousetrap' rip-off; their desires and fears loop the play and they find themselves the main players. What makes the play an eternal delight is the way Stoppard grounds the European ideas in a very English sensibility; the Wildean sparkle of the hackneyed dialogue; and the uproarious wit with which he turns straw targets into philosophical vortices. More importantly, the spatial interplay between two temporally distinct narratives of 'reality' looks forward to the playwright's masterpiece 'Arcadia'.'After Magritte' is a companion piece to 'Hound' - it too parodies crime stories, and it too features a detached critic (in this case a policeman, Inspector Foot, investigating a robbery) entering the world of the play (the crime). The most visual of plays, its effects depending on elaborate Magritte-inspired tableaux, the piece is less enjoyable than 'Hound' to read, the involved stage directions halting the wit. Conversely, it's the play in the volume one is most eager to see performed. Stoppard puns on Magritte and Maigret: the domestic surrealism of the former and the burrowing detective logic of the latter seep into each other - the one is gridded by a logic that manages to interpret and connect the most disparate of enigmatic details; the latter is undermined by the same logic being mad and arbitary. The very first image reveals a distorted family composition being spied on by a policeman, a perfect image of disruptive desire trammelled by the Law, or dream by reality; an opposition Stoppard reverses and breaks down with some joyously bad puns.'Dirty Linen' is comparatively straightforward, mixing mild political satire with bawdy farce. A Select Committee of MPs convenes in the tower of Big Ben to investigate press allegations of widespread sexual immorality in the House of Commons, apparently centring on one particular young 'mystery woman'. Coincidentally, the new clerk at the meeting, a ruthlessly ambitious young woman who goes through increasing states of undress during the play, seems to know her new employers rather well. In making comedy out of government bureaucracy, 'Linen' anticipates the famous TV series 'Yes Minister', but is at its funniest when content with surprisingly traditional farce, which survives Stoppard's reversals - dirty old men, busty, scantily-clad young ladies, doubles entendres, puns, breakdowns and manipulations of language, exits, entrances, deceit and misunderstanding.'New-found-land' is a play-within-'Dirty Linen', and is set in the same House of Commons committee room, no

This relatively early play displays all the gifts that made Stoppard famous. It is very funny, with truly witty dialogue and a extremely clever plot. The play is full of clever literary allusions. It is simultaneously a send up of British murder mysteries, Beckett, Pinter, and an attack on Drama critics. As with almost all of Stoppard's work, the humor and wit is used to deal with a serious subject with some philosophical dimensions, in this case the nature of reality and the relationship between real life and art. This is a farce with some serious dimensions. Stoppard is able to examine these themes without sacrificing in any way the humor of the piece, which can be enjoyed simply on the basis of the very funny dialogue and action. This play is not as rich as later works, such as Arcadia or The Invention of Love, in which the humor and philosophical interests are balanced with greater character development and humanity. Very enjoyable.

Tom Stoppard loves multilayered writing and drama, creating comedy or even farce.This play is an allusion to An Inspector Calls. It uses travesties, double or triple identities like Shakespeare in his comedies. It is a direct descendant of Samuel Beckett's absurd drama. It is an allusion to Murder by Death. It is thus a parody of many models and even a parody of a parody. But it is also built with a mirror projecting the audience onto the stage, then projecting this projected audience into the play, and the actors into this projected audience of critics. This is again a multifaceted mirror. Finally no one is true, no one is false, no truth is true, and no truth is false. All theories are purely abstract, absurd and abscond fantasies. The last layer of parody and criticism is directed at the police of course as for the plot of the play, and the critics as for the performance of the play and the play itself. Stoppard is a hard hitting satirist cast loose onto the public, the critics and society. Catch out of it what you can. And nothing if you can't catch anything. Too bad for you. Stoppard will not cry.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

"The Real Inspector Hound" like most of Stoppard is an exercise in the meta-theatrical... with hilarious results. The story centers around two theatre critics watching a play on stage. Throughout the one act we're introduced to Moon and Birdboot (the critics), see their commentary on the ridiculously parodied murder-mystery play, and watch as they accidentially become part of it. While these stranger elements may turn off some readers/audiences, it is undeniable that "The Real Inspector Hound" is witty and clever. For example, at one point a critic is caught on stage repeating a previous scene with an actress who is his ex-lover. The dialouge, which we've heard before, this time takes on a double-meaning and fits both "characters'" relationship as well as the critic-actress relationship. At the very least, it's entertaining. Staging the play is probably even more difficult. I'm part of a production going up in a couple of months and the casting, sets and dialouge are extremely challenging. However, if sufficient acting talent can be found for the critics, and enough work is put into the show, I think it could be amazing. More than other plays, reading "The Real Inspector Hound" requires imagining the show being staged in order to understand the subtleties and appreciate the humor. A great one act.

I am a big fan of Tom Stoppard, and this play is the cornerstone of my affection for his work. The plot of what may clumsily be described as a play-within-a-play is fairly convoluted.Two theater critics, Birdboot and Moon, are in attendance at the opening of a play which is a melodramatic re-hashing of every whodunit ever performed. Half-way through, Birdboot is drawn on-stage by a ringing phone, and the inner play begins again with Birdboot taking the part of the "mysterious stranger in our midst". After two scenes of Birdboot hitting on the actresses and improvising his lines, we come to the point in the play in which the character whose place Birdboot has taken is shot onstage. Birdboot falls to the ground dead, and the real murder mystery begins...This long one-act is full of wit and verve. In the end, it is up to each member of the audience to put the pieces of the puzzle together and discover the true villain of the piece. A gem.