The ReaI Inspector Hound - Tom Stoppard.

ESSAY QUESTION to be thought about whilst struggling through this little lot - yours truly, teacher...

The play makes very clever USE of theatrical conventions, while never actually violating them. Do you agree?

What ARE some of the conventions which Stoppard either uses or violates in The Real Inspector Hound?

1. Comment on the opening s.d. What effects is Stoppard asking for? How else might these effects be achieved, i.e. in different kinds of theatre?

2. Before any dialogue takes place, what do we learn about the characters and the situation? Comment on Moon. Comment on Birdboot.

3. Before the "Mystery of Muldoon Manor"begins, what do we learn from the dialogue between the two critics?

4. When the play begins, the critics continue talking - What is the effect of this? 5. How is the character of Birdboot further established in the dialogue to p. 14.?

6. Comment on the exchange over the chocolates. Why is this humorous?

7. Comment on the opening of the play WITHIN the play. What conventions of the "English drawing-room thriller" are being satirised? Do the presence and comments of the critics add anything to the humour and satire?

8. What indications are there that as well as this being an atrocious play, it is also a poor production?

9. Comment on Mrs Drudge's reaction to the first phone call.

10. Comment on Simon's reaction to the second.

11. Comment on Moon's description of Birdboot's review, and on Birdboot's line, "Oh-yes-I know...was that you" I thought it was Higgs?"

12. What issue is hinted at in Moon's speech "It is merely that it is not enough to wax at another's wane..."

13. Comment on Moon's critical pronouncement at the bottom of p.19, and Birdboot's response.

14. Comment on how Stoppard parallels the rising action of the two scenarios (thrillerand dialogue between Moon and Birdboot).

15. While Birdboot is falling in love with Cynthia, what is going on with Moon? (pp26-27)

16. Comment on the way Moon undercuts Birdboots's raptures over Cynthia. What idea has crept into Moon's mind?

17. What is the significance of Moon's speech on p.28: "Does it, I repeat, declare its affiliations..." In the light of what happens to Moon later on why is this speech ironical?

18. Comment on the echos of Beckett and Pinter, in Moon's pronouncement, and in the tea-scene. What assumptions about the audience is Stoppard making?

19. Comment on Birdboot's reaction: "The second act, however, fails to fulfil...".

20. Comment on the entry of Inspector Hound, and on the scene which follows. How does Stoppard parody the thriller here - in particular whom does the Inspector remind you of? what evidence is there that he is not the real Inspector Hound?

21. Why do you think there is such confusion when the body is rediscovered?

22. What do the two critics fantasize about after the conclusion of Act Two of "Murder at Muldoon Manor". (p.35)

23. In what ways do their respective critical comments tie in with these fantasies?

24. What is the theatrical effect of Birdboot answering the phone?

26. Comment on Moon's reactions to this. 2

27. Comment Birdboot's attempts to seduce Cynthia. Why are they so funny? How does his real role parallel Simon's?

28. Are there any DIFFERENCES (apart form Birdboot's lines between the first occurrence of the murder mystery play and the second - for example, pacing, etc? And what is the effect of this?

29. What is the effect of the repetition, with the addition of Birdboot, of Act Two of the thriller? Comment on the effects created by particular repeated actions such as the wheelchair accident and the card game.

30. How does Moon become trapped in the play?

31. What is the significance of the moment when he attempts to return to his seat?

32. Comment on the new critic's comments. Are they right? In what ways could this be seen as a rather clever device by Stoppard?

33. What are Moon's reactions to the situation he finds himself in (see Stoppard's s.d.'s for clues)?

34. What does he now try and do?

35. What is the significance of Moon's line "I only dreamed...sometimes I dreamed-"? What does he think might happen to him (remember HE has a motive for the murder of Higgs)?

36. How effective do you think the play's ending is? Why?

Some things to ponder on... either of the plots, on their own, would be disastrous. As a play, the intrigues of jealousy, murder and attempted seduction in the world of the theatre critics are the material of melodrama or soap - "Muldoon Manor" would actually stand alone rather better - as pure parody - but still hardly gets beyond the level of a Monty Python sketch. (You might like to compare this play with some of John Cleese's parodies of detectives, policemen, in "Flying Circus".) What's the effect, then of running the two simultaneously? Essentially, you get a doubling-up of all the usual mimetic effects - double characterisation, double action, double climax, double denouement - the effect too, of an illusionist creating something out of two halves that in themselves are nothing - a kind of theatrical conjuring trick. Stoppard can also create humour, tension in the audience by pushing the two halves of the play together and then pulling them apart - finally of course collapsing them into one. The audience may notice the hints, earlier in the play, that there's intrusion of one illusory world into another (the phone calls, the fact that nobody in the actual play recognises the body - how could they? - the fact that Birdboot knows Felicity in "real" life...), and feel a sense of comic relief when the barriers finally do collapse. From this point on the play becomes hilarious - fast-paced, as the double action proceeds to its double climax and double denouement we forget how slight the actual plots are. In its concerns, you can neither take the play seriously, nor dismiss it. If you start to ponder its existential meaning you'll find that Moon has said it all - a dreadful and sickly comic irony attaches to the fate of Moon, condemned to exemplify the very theme of identity he pontificates on, by losing it, becoming trapped in an illusion himself - (notice he "freezes" when he sees his place is occupied). If on the other hand you take it merely as Birdboot does "a rattling good evening out - I was held" - you miss something as well. The two critics represent poles of response to the whole play, each inadequate. Stoppard makes reference to other dramatist - Moon's list of the greats of C20th drama (including Dorothy L. Sayers notwithstanding) is reinforced by echoes of Beckett, Pinter. It's entertaining and clever but is there anything more to it?