Tom Stoppard an Assessment Tom Stoppard an Assessment

TOM STOPPARD AN ASSESSMENT TOM STOPPARD AN ASSESSMENT

Tim Brassell

Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 978-1-349-17791-2 ISBN 978-1-349-17789-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-17789-9

Published in the United Kingdom by The Macmillan Press Ltd. First published in the United States of America in 1985

ISBN 978-0-312-80888-4

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Brassell, Tim, 1953- Tom Stoppard: an assessment.

Bibliography: p. Includes index. I. Stoppard, Tom-Criticism and interpretation. 1. Title. PR6069·T6Z59 1984 822'.914 83-40126 ISBN 978-0-312-80888-4 Contents

A Note on Punctuation Vll

Acknowledgement Vlll

Preface IX

I Introduction I

2 'Style' versus 'Substance': 7 3 short stories from Introduction Two Lord Malquist and Mr Moon

3 Post-War Theatre: Some Contemporary Currents

4 In the Off-Stage World: 35 Rosencrantz and Cuildenstern are Dead

5 Escape Routes: 68 Enter a Free Man A Separate Peace If You're Clad r II Be Frank Albert's Bridge

6 Nuts and Bolts: The Real Inspector Hound After Magritte Where Are They Now?

7 Ethics on the Wane: 115 Jumpers

v VI Contents

8 The Importance of Being Carr: Travesties

9 More Puzzles: Artist Descending a Staircase Eleventh Hour - The Boundary

IO Eyes East: 179 Every Cood Boy Deserves Favour Professional Foul liThe Road to Kambawe: 204 Night and Day

12 Back to Farce: 223 Dirty Linen Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth On the Razzle

13 Conclusion 257

Appendix One The original ending of Rosencrant;::, and 270 Cuildenstern are Dead

Appendix Two List of first performances 272

Appendix Three First major performances in America 274

References 275

Bibliography 287

Index 293 A Note on Punctuation

Since Stoppard himself uses three dots (. . .) regularly in his own punctuation, a line break is added to all quotations from his work where material has been omitted. Three dots without a line break thus means that nothing is missing. This applies to quotations from Stoppard on(y.

vii Acknowledgement

Extracts from the plays: Rosencrantz and Cuildenstern are Dead, Enter a Free Man, A Separate Peace, If You're Clad Fll Be Frank, Albert's Bridge, The Real Inspector Hound, After Magritte, Where Are T~ Now?, Jumpers, Travesties, Artist Descending a Staircase, Every Cood Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, Night and Day, Dirty Linen, Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth and On the Razzle are reproduced by permission of Faber & Faber Ltd, London.

viii Preface

'Interpretation' (as Susan Sontag has said), 'is the -revenge of the intellect on art.' It's a view which I strongly suspect Tom Stoppard shares, so perhaps I'd better say at the outset that vengeance has formed no part of my conscious intentions in preparing this book. I have, on the contrary, been guided by the belief that Stoppard's work, with its characteristic marriage of humour and seriousness and its flamboyant theatricality, is a valuable and unique asset to our contemporary theatre. I hope that more people might come to share this view after reading the book, whether as students, actors, producers or theatregoers, and that this 'interpretation' may send them back where their attention rightly belongs - to the plays, and to Stoppard's art. When I began work on this book in 1975 (originally for a research degree), there was next to nothing in print about Tom Stoppard's plays beyond a few scholarly articles and a mountain of reviews. Since then a number of short monographs have appeared in Britain and America, but not the major study which his plays demand. The more they are studied on examination syllabuses at all levels on both sides of the Atlantic, the more that absence - and the need to examine and rectify some of the misunderstandings that seem to have attached themselves to his work - has been demonstrated. It is in the hope of contributing at least a starting point in that direction that this study is therefore published. I would like to acknowledge the invaluable encouragement and guidance given to me by Michael Quinn of University College, Cardiff, in setting this book in motion and for the fatherly eye he has kept on it since. I want also to thank Catherine Hepworth, Geoffrey Axworthy of the Sherman Theatre and Julia Steward at Macmillan for their kindness and assistance at various stages, and Joyce Bruce andJean Shacklady for their valiant deciphering of my handwriting. My thanks are also due to Faber and Faber and the Grove Press for permission to reproduce copyright material from ix x Preface

Tom Stoppard's work and to Tom Stoppard and Clive Exton for permission to quote from The Boundary. Chapter 7 of this book was first published in a slightly different version in Gambit magazine, vol. 10, no. 37 (John Calder, Ig81). Above all, my thanks are due to Tom Stoppard for many happy and enlightening hours of reading and theatregoing.

TJB

Newcastle upon Tyne Ig83