Crime Fiction Session Three: Tom Stoppard, The Real Inspector Hound

Agenda Fiction vs drama Tom Stoppard, The Real Inspector Hound: The play and the-play-within-the-play The play and the country house murder mystery: parody and pastiche

Fiction vs Drama Fiction: (re)reading Asynchronic experience Drama: Watching Listening Synchronic experience

Fiction vs Drama Fiction involves reading. When we read fiction, we have to recreate the fictional world in our minds. Plays involve watching and listening. When we watch a play we are the witnesses to a fictional world that has already been recreated for us (by the director among others).

Fiction vs Drama Reading is an asynchronous experience. It allows for rereading. We have the opportunity of refreshing our memories by going over particular passages again. Watching a play is a synchronous experience. We cannot ask the actors to recapitulate a particular scene or dialogue.

Fiction vs Drama Because we’re supposed to get the point the first time around, drama tends to be less complex than prose fiction. A play will often use repetitions to secure that its point is registered.

Tom Stoppard, The Real Inspector Hound Read the opening stage direction carefully Make a drawing of the stage following the direction carefully (use the following slide to get you started. Include the drawing in your portfolio

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Tom Stoppard, The Real Inspector Hound Stoppard’s play follows the play-within-the- play convention that most people are familiar with from Hamlet, for instance. We have two levels: The level of the play is constituted by two theatre critics watching a play The level of the play-within-the-play is the whodunnit they’re are watching and reviewing

Tom Stoppard, The Real Inspector Hound Stoppard’s play, then, mingles the two levels as Birdboot and Moon are caught up in the action of the play-within-the-play Like the opening tableau, this mixing of levels is also ”impossible” since they represent two distinct and mutually exclusive categories:

Tom Stoppard, The Real Inspector Hound The play: Life Reality The play-within-the- play: Art Fiction

Tom Stoppard, The Real Inspector Hound On a piece of paper, make a list of characters for the play and the play-within- the-play respectively Show how they cross over between the two levels (follow, for instance, my suggestions in the next slide) Include the list of characters and their relationships to the two levels in the portfolio

Tom Stoppard, The Real Inspector Hound The play: Life Reality Birdboot Moon The play-within-the- play: Art Fiction Simon Gascoyne Inspector Hound

Tom Stoppard, The Real Inspector Hound By having the two levels merge with each other, Stoppard appears to want to teach us a lesson: Our existences are intertwined with scripts and roles – we play a part in life. That we cannot escape. If you want to succeed, you’ll have to do more than just to follow the script (since sticking to the script gets you killed). To succeed you’ll have to be a ”cunning bastard” (Moon’s expression at the end of the play) and actively manipulate the scripts you’re written into and the roles you play.

Tom Stoppard, The Real Inspector Hound In his play, Stoppard makes use of and manipulates a famous generic convention for his own ends: The country house murder mystery. More particularly, he draws upon Agatha Christie’s play The Mousetrap Find information on the Internet concerning The Mousetrap, especially concerning its ending. Print and include in the portfolio (max three documents)

Tom Stoppard, The Real Inspector Hound Stoppard’s use of the generic conventions of the country house murder mystery involves parody and satire. For instance, the way in which the telephone is used in the beginning of the play when Mrs Drudge answers it satirises the dramatic incompetence of most whodunnits The telephone conversation is a clumsy short cut that tries to furnish us with important information concerning, among other things, Lord Albert Muldoon, by having Mrs Drudge tell it to the audience. A serious playwright would, of course, have dramatised that information and shown it to the audience in a seperate scene, for instance.

Tom Stoppard, The Real Inspector Hound Make a list of other aspects that strike you as parodic of the genre in general or The Mousetrap in particular. Your list should include aspects that relate to, among other things, props, characters, dialogue, and action. Include the list in your portfolio.

Tom Stoppard, The Real Inspector Hound But Stoppard’s play is clearly not just a parody. It is also a highly effective example of the genre at the same time. It is also a highly effective pastiche. When we read / watch the play we cannot help but be caught up in the puzzle (who is the killer?) Similarly, we cannot help but look for clues as to his identity And lastly, we have to admire Stoppard’s successful manipulation of the conventions of the genre when we discover how closely he has followed the rules pertaining to a locked room mystery: the killer was indeed in their midst all the time!

Tom Stoppard, The Real Inspector Hound Thus, almost like Moon’s dying admiration for Puckeridge, we’re forced to conclude with approval that Tom Stoppard is a ”cunning bastard”!