Stephanie Gamarra Wäntig 27^th of December, 2005

Group: A

The play,

“The Real Inspector Hound”

“The Real Inspector Hound” is a one-act farce written by the famous playwright Tom Stoppard. This play was first published by the editorial Faber and Faber in 1968, London.

In this play we are introduced to a number of characters, although two are the main characters, Moon and Birdboot who are critics. The rest of the characters of the play appear acting in a play, who are Mrs. Drudge, Simon, Felicity, Cynthia, Magnus and the Inspector Hound. Mrs. Drudge works for the Muldoon family, although the only one left is the wife Cynthia because her husband is missing. Felicity is a friend of the family and of Magnus. Simon appears to be friends with both Cynthia and Felicity. The inspector Hound enters in the scene of the play to find out about the assassin of Cynthia’s husband.

This play can be divided in parts, one reality and one fiction. The reality part is about two men that go to watch a play and while they are watching the play they take notes and converse about their lives. The other part of the play, which is the fiction part, is the play in which Birdboot and Moon are watching. The play is about an assassination that takes part and an Inspector is called to resolve the mystery. Cynthia, the wife of the missing person has her friends Simon and Felicity over. At the end of the play, it seems that Cynthia’s husband wasn’t killed, but her husband had lost his memory and to find out the truth he had to pretend he was inspector Hound, but to do so he first had to live a double life and be Magnus. At the end of the play there was a dramatic change in the play, when Simon was assassinated Birdboot enters and takes Simon’s place in the play, but then he was assassinated and then Moon is the one who interprets inspector Hound. This is how the play ends, but before it ends Moon and Birdboot exchange roles with Simon and Hound.

This play takes place in a theatre, where there are two seats for both Moon and Birdboot and a stage where they act out the play. In the stage we can find a room with a table, a telephone and a radio.

The language in which the play is written is quite simple and somewhat colloquial. The play is written in verse. Another aspect that we can add to this is that throughout the play we can see quotes and phrases from Shakespeare, which is very common in Stoppard’s plays.

In my opinion this play was rather difficult to comprehend due to sudden change in characters that happens at the end in the scene when Birdboot and Moon exchange roles with Simon and the Inspector Hound. Other than that, it was quite interesting and intriguing due to the mystery of the play.