Play of the Week

The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard

Dr Pryce

“What do you think you’re doing? You’re turning it into a complete farce!” 
For this year’s 6th form play, The Milton Studio will be transformed into a 1960’s style theatre as we enter the world of Tom Stoppard’s The Real Inspector Hound. This hilarious play is a parody of the stereotypical parlour mystery. The play follows two theatre critics, Moon and Birdboot, who are watching a nonsensical setup of a typical ‘whodunnit’. By chance, they become involved in the action causing a series of events that parallel the play they are watching. In this preview, I will take you through some of the central theatrical conventions that the play explores, particularly focussing on the styles of comedy which Stoppard utilises.

First performed in London, in 1968, The Real Inspector Hound has been hailed as a ‘timeless farce’. “But, what is a farce?” I hear you asking. Farce is a genre of comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd and improbable. Farce is likely a genre that we are all familiar with, even if we might not always be aware of it. Indeed, it is a very common style that pervades many art forms. For those of us that saw last year’s house drama performance of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest - we were laughing at a farce. If you have ever watched anything by the comic geniuses of Monty Python - you were laughing at a farce. Perhaps as we move into the colder months you may turn on Will Ferrell’s Christmas classic Elf and if you were to do so… that’s right, you’d be watching a farce! You get the idea.

However, The Real Inspector Hound is not only a farce, it is also a satirical parody of a ‘whodunnit’ style murder mystery. A whodunnit is a complex plot-driven variety of detective fiction in which the puzzle regarding who committed the crime is the main focus. The particular story being parodied (made fun of) in this production is Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap. You may have heard of this play, or you may have seen it, as it is actually the longest running show, of any kind, in the world. It opened in November 1952 at The Ambassadors Theatre in London. However, if you aren’t familiar with Christie’s classic, you might also call to mind films, novels or plays like: Knives Out, Sherlock Holmes, or even any of the Scooby-Doo canon.

Finally, the play is unique in its exploration of theatre itself as an artform. The play may be considered a metatheatrical comedy. If you happen to be studying A Midsummer Night’s Dream at GCSE, you will already be very familiar with metatheatre, but just in case you aren’t, let me briefly explain. Metatheatre, and the closely related term metadrama, describes the aspects of a play that draw attention to its nature as drama or theatre, or to the circumstances of its performance. We will all be familiar with the accepted traditions of attending a piece of theatre. We dutifully clap when we are expected to, traipse out at prescribed intervals and allow ourselves to be immersed in a story we know not to be true. The Real Inspector Hound flips all of these conventions on their head, making fun of the very nature of theatre. Intensifying the aspects of the script which draw attention to this familiar absurdity, our production embraces this farcical stylisation across acting, staging, lighting and sound. If you come along and watch this year’s 6th form play, which I very much hope you will, you are likely to feel like you, the theatre-goer yourself, have been put under the magnifying glass and are being laughed at.

 

Rehearsal Shots: Max, Ollie and Tom 

The Real Inspector Hound runs from the 16th to the 18th in The Milton Studio and tickets are selling out fast, in fact, we are already sold out on some nights, so get yours as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. You’ll be laughing for the duration of the performance, that is a guarantee!