AUTHOR: Tom Stoppard
TITLE OF THE PLAY: Dirty Linen.
EDITORIAL: Faber & Faber
YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 1976
PLACE OF PUBLICATION:
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
MADDIE: She is a girl who arrives at the House of Commons to work as a clerk. At the beginning, she seems to be an innocent girl, a girl that knows nothing about lives of the Select Committee. She listens to Mcteazle and Cocklebury-Smythe, two characters that inform her about the situation of this committee. I think she is the most important character because she demonstrates the corruption inside the British Parliament.
COCKLEBURY-SMYTHE, M.P: He is a minister of Parliament. He informs Maddie about how ministers are. He seems nice to meet her when he knows that she is the clerk and during all the play, he is advising to her about how she has to deal with the other ministers.
MCTEAZLE, M.P: This character, near Cocklebury-smythe, talks to Maddie and he also seems nice to meet her. He is one minister of “Milk Marketing Board”. He has an extensive conversation with Maddie about rumors of sexual promiscuity by certain members of the House of Commons.
CHAMBERLAIN, M.P: He is Douglas, another minister. When he appears on stage, he seems to be very impressed because of the presence of Maddie. He thinks she is very pretty. Cocklebury-Smythe asks him if he knows her, but he says no.
WITHENSHAW, M.P: He is the chairman of Select Committee. He starts to make some questions to Maddie about “the quorum”, her speed to write and other things like those. He talks to Cocklebury, Mcteazle and French about the matters that concern to them and orders Maddie to write.
MRS. EBURY, M.P: She is Deborah. This character is secondary. She adds some ideas in the Select Committee.
FRENCH: He is a minister who arrives late to the meeting. In that moment, the cards are put on the table.
DEVELOPMENT
Maddie is a girl that becomes the clerk of the House of Commons. Two men, Cocklebury-Smythe and Mcteazle talk to her and advise her about what she has to say: she has to know what a quorum is, she has not to remember some places as Crockford’s, Claridges and Coq d’Or and she must have speed to write. When Chamberlain appears, he also surprises at her beauty.
Withenshaw arrives and meets Maddie and the other ministers. They start to talk about what the press says about them. It is said Members have engaged in scandalous conduct. Select Committee Moral Standards is made evident in Public Life. They are analysing why it is said and they want to complain about it. For this reason, Maddie is writing a text which they are making to expose their disagreement. They reflect among them and discuss about it. French thinks that corruption and disrepute are true. Finally, Maddie confesses that she has held sexual relations with a lot of ministers and celebrities of Politics.
SPACE: This play takes
place in an only space: a meeting room inside the House of Commons business, in
the
TIME: scenes are represented at the present in the morning.
LITERARY RESOURCES:
Vocabulary is not simple. In this play, we can see some Latin or French phrases
as the following ones: “Qui
s’excuse, s’accuse”, “
PERSONAL OPINION: I think this play is totally a critic about Politics and ministers. They are not perfect and because of being ministers they are not more or less polite than the rest of people in the world. This one means that in spite of the fact that they have power and good position, they also have their “dark side” and it may be known.