Tom Stoppard, The Real Inspector Hound

Shawn Knight (Belmont University)

Ed. by Aleks Sierz, Independent Scholar - Europe
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1968

Places

United Kingdom (Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

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The Real Inspector Hound

premiered in 1968 at the Criterion Theatre in London. This one-act play (typically less than eighty minutes in performance) was the first Stoppard play to have a London preview, a process that Stoppard claims to have appreciated (Delany 181). In 1972,

The Real Inspector Hound

premiered in America. Stoppard directed a London revival of the play at the National Theatre in 1985, and the play had a Broadway revival in 1992, before a second major London revival in 1998.

SUMMARY

The Real Inspector Hound is often cited as one of the prime examples of the Theatre of the Absurd. In it, two critics (the second-string critic Moon, and the lustful, womanizing Birdboot) arrive at the theatre, assigned to write reviews of the production they have come to see. These

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1598 words

Citation: Knight, Shawn. "The Real Inspector Hound". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 August 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7530, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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