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Real Inspector Hound, The

  • Tom Stoppard
  • Short Play, Comedy
  • 5M, 3F
  • ISBN: 9780573023231

Feuding theatre critics Moon and Birdboot are swept into the whodunit they are viewing.

More information

Description

  • Short Play
  • Comedy
  • 60 minutes

  • Target Audience: Teen (Age 14 - 18), Adult
  • Set Requirements: Interior Set

  • Performance Group:
  • Community Theatre, College Theatre / Student, Blackbox / Second Stage /Fringe Groups, Professional Theatre
Rave reviews greeted this long one act masterpiece of farce when it was recently revived in London with Peter Shaffer's Black Comedy.

Feuding theatre critics Moon and Birdboot, the first a fusty philanderer and the second a pompous and vindictive second stringer, are swept into the whodunit they are viewing. In the hilarious spoof of Agatha Christie-like melodramas that follows, the body under the sofa proves to be the missing first string critic. As mists rise about isolated Muldoon Manor, Moon and Birdboot become dangerously implicated in the lethal activities of an escaped madman.
REVIEWS:

"The Real Inspector Hound is an exceedingly clever lampoon, sharply in focus..."

 The New York Times

Really funny comic gems.

 Daily Mail

"What absurd fun Tom Stoppard created when he let his fantasies run wild."

 Evening Standard

"Witty and delicious parody of the fog bound whodunit."

 Guardian

"A tour de force of theatrical metaphysics."

 Daily Mail

"A masterpiece... Stoppard mines murder mystery conventions and strikes gold."

 Independent on Sunday

Premiere Production: The Real Inspector Hound premiered at the Criterion Theatre in London in June 1968 under the direction of Robert Chetwyn.

Characters

  • Casting: 5M, 3F

  • MOON - A second string critic.
    BIRDBOOT - A rival critic.
    MRS. DRUDGE - Housekeeper of Muldoon Manor. Character in the play that Birdboot and Moon are reviewing.
    SIMON - A visitor to Muldoon Manor. Character in the play Birdboot and Moon are reviewing.
    FELICITY - One of Simon's lovers. Character in the play Birdboot and Moon are reviewing.
    CYNTHIA - Another of Simon's lovers. Character in the play Birdboot and Moon are reviewing.
    MAGNUS - The crippled half-brother to Lord Muldoon. Character in the play Birdboot and Moon are reviewing.
    INSPECTOR HOUND - Detective inspecting a murder at Muldoon Manor. Character in the play Birdboot and Moon are reviewing.
    BBC RADIO VOICE

    • Available Material

    Name Price
    Real Inspector Hound,The Script Order Now

    Moon and Birdboot, two drama critics, arrive to watch the performance of a new detective play, a parody of the conventional stage thriller. However the private lives of the critics become inextricably mixed with those of the play's characters until Moon is shot dead and the real Inspector Hound proves to be ... ?

    		$24.95

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