Word: staging
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Like After Magritte, The Real Inspector Hound is a detective parody; the twist here is to blur the lines between audience, reviewer, cast and character. The "mystery," such as it is, is irrelevant, merely serving as an excuse for Stoppard to play with conventions of the stage. Set in a Gothic mansion on the moors, a group of caricatures expound upon their social problems--but somewhere outside, an escaped criminal lurks. The players include a dimwitted blonde (Susan Kelly), a melodramatic maiden (Meg Schellenberg) and a gruff crippled veteran (Wise) who play cards endlessly. Into the scene comes a stranger...
...Good morning," says Roger Franklin, a stage manager...
...Chicago skyscraper rises on stage right, with the Chrysler Building on stage left. The main set, a luxury sleeping car on the Chicago-New York run, circa 1930, comes together in between...
...actors bask momentarily in the applause. And then, almost before they have left the stage, the crew swarms over the set. A starry sky gets folded up and tucked into a basket. The sleeping-car set begins to tremble under the ratchetting of half a dozen socket wrenches and quickly comes apart in 40 pieces. Someone shouts, "Hit it!" And a dozen men bully a light rack onto a truck, wheels humming and clattering up the aluminum ramp...
...much as anyone else, Leonard exulted, "I saw every punch coming," and no one should expect him to quit now. Maybe he will next try the light-heavyweight champion, his old friend Hearns. In a way, Leonard has beaten a heavyweight already. He knocked Mike Tyson clear off the stage...