Word: stoppard
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Bradbury's Pillar of Fire in the Dunster House dining hall says, "It isn't so bad. You have to move all the tables out and then put them back in, but other than that it's O.K." But Liza DiPrima '89, who this spring directed two Tom Stoppard farces, The Real Inspector Hound and After Magritte, in the same space contends, "It's the worst...
...play is a jumble of shouting voices until a police inspector (Jeff Wise) shows up. Wise, in an apt parody of the know-it-all British detective, deduces an utterly fraudulent solution to the problem. When the correct answer emerges, our understanding of the play is no clearer; in Stoppard, the process, not the plot, is the point...
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...
DiPrima's cast gives a competent reading to the material, and Stoppard's clever lines could probably withstand even the most brutal student production. But simple problems mar the production, particularly failed attempts at British accents and a failure to alter annoying British colloquialisms; phrases as "wind screen" instead of "windshield," "shaving foam" instead of "shaving cream" distract the audience for no purpose. Inspector Hound, moreover, at longer than an hour, begins to grate. DiPrima would have been wiser to slice out a third of the dialogue, and concentrate on the sparkling delivery of the remainder...
Nonetheless, Stoppard's sketches remain diverting and enjoyable entertainment. Those who favor Monty Python-styled British farce will find the Dunster House production an amusing if not uproarious evening...