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* StrawCritic: A Type 1 and Type 2 duo, with both having elements of the CausticCritic. Moon, the younger, is the deeply pretentious, over-analytical type of critic, who insists on comparing whatever he's currently reviewing to Sartre and other highbrow works (whether or not such parallels are warranted or even accurate), and talks himself into admiring ''Inspector Hound'' as an avant-garde piece even as he trashes it. The older Birdboot, meanwhile, is a much more esteemed and accessible critic, but has nothing to offer except surface-level platitudes ("a rattling good evening out") and obvious, circular statements, reserving his highest praise [[DirtyOldMan for any actress he fancies seducing]]. Both are shown, in their own ways, to be completely full of it.
to:
* StrawCritic: A Type 1 and Type 2 duo, with both having elements of the CausticCritic. Moon, the younger, is the deeply pretentious, over-analytical type of critic, who insists on comparing whatever he's currently reviewing to Sartre and other highbrow works (whether or not such parallels are warranted or even accurate), and talks himself into admiring ''Inspector Hound'' as an avant-garde piece even as he trashes it. The older Birdboot, meanwhile, is a much more esteemed and accessible critic, but has nothing to offer except surface-level platitudes ("a rattling good evening out") and obvious, circular statements, reserving his highest praise [[DirtyOldMan for any actress he fancies seducing]]. Both are shown, shown to be, in their own ways, to be completely full of it.
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* ShowWithinAShow
* StrawCritic: Moon is an incredibly anally retentive over-analytical type who insists on comparing the play they are watching to the works of Creator/JeanPaulSartre. Birdboot is a DirtyOldMan who gives high praise to any actress he fancies seducing.
* StrawCritic: Moon is an incredibly anally retentive over-analytical type who insists on comparing the play they are watching to the works of Creator/JeanPaulSartre. Birdboot is a DirtyOldMan who gives high praise to any actress he fancies seducing.
to:
-->'''Birdboot:''' It is at this point that the play, for me, comes alive. The groundwork has been well and truly laid, and the author has taken the trouble to learn from the masters of the genre. He has created a real situation, and few will doubt his ability to resolve it with a startling denouement. Certainly, that is what it so far lacks, but it has a beginning, a middle -- and, I have no doubt, it will prove to have an end. For this, let us give thanks, and double thanks for a good clean show without a trace of smut.\\
'''Moon:''' If we examine this more closely, and I think close examination is the least tribute that this play deserves, I think we will find that within the austere framework of what is seen to be on one level a country-house week-end, and what a useful symbol that is, the author has given us -- yes, I will go so far -- he has given us the human condition. Faced as we are with such ubiquitous obliquity, it is hard, it is hard indeed, and therefore I will not attempt -- to refrain from invoking the names of Kafka, Sartre, Shakespeare, St. Paul, Beckett, Birkett, Pinero, Pirandello, Dante and Dorothy L. Sayers.
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* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: In-universe, Moon's approach to his reviewing what is basically a simple countryhouse whodunnit, in contrast to Birdboot taking it at face value. At one point, he asks that "we" are entitled to ask "where is God?" (an absence, in the Nietzschean sense); Birdboot, utterly baffled, starts studying his programme to see if there's someone in the cast listed as God.
to:
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: In-universe, Moon's approach to his reviewing what is basically a simple countryhouse country-house whodunnit, in contrast to Birdboot taking it at face value. At one point, he asks that "we" are entitled to ask "where is God?" (an absence, in the Nietzschean sense); Birdboot, utterly baffled, starts studying his programme to see if there's someone in the cast listed as God.
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* SelfParody: [[spoiler:The secret villain, Puckeridge, takes deliberate advantage of how Stoppard's own works use the concept of metafiction, and orchestrates his victory by influencing, and hiding in, the ambiguous reality of a play-within-a-play.]]
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* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: In-universe, Moon's approach to his reviewing what is basically a simple countryhouse whodunnit, in contrast to Birdboot taking it at face value. At one point, he asks that "we" are entitled to ask "where is God?" (an absence, in the Nietzschean sense); Birdboot, utterly baffled, starts studying his programme to see if there's someone in the cast listed as God.
-->'''Birdboot:''' It's a sort of thriller, isn't it?\\
'''Moon:''' Is it?\\
'''Birdboot:''' That's what I heard. 'Who killed thing'? -- no-one will leave the house.\\
'''Moon:''' I suppose so. Underneath.\\
'''Birdboot:''' ''[Confused]'' UNDERNEATH?
-->'''Birdboot:''' It's a sort of thriller, isn't it?\\
'''Moon:''' Is it?\\
'''Birdboot:''' That's what I heard. 'Who killed thing'? -- no-one will leave the house.\\
'''Moon:''' I suppose so. Underneath.\\
'''Birdboot:''' ''[Confused]'' UNDERNEATH?
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'''Moon:''' WELL, you fickle old bastard!
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'''Moon:''' WELL, Well, you fickle old bastard!
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'''Birdboot:''' HOW DARE YOU?! ''[Embarrassed, he adjusts his voice to a lower volume]'' How ''dare'' you.\\
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'''Moon:''' Why, you fickle old bastard!
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'''Moon:''' Why, WELL, you fickle old bastard!
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* CastingCouch: A variant; it's an open secret among other critics and theatre veterans that Birdboot, a "plumpish, middle-aged" married man, [[SleepingTheirWayToTheTop seduces up-and-coming, naive young actresses, then heaps praise on them in his reviews]] until his next fling. The man denies it, but not very well.
-->'''Birdboot:''' For God's sake, Moon, what's the matter with you? You could do yourself some good, spotting her first time out -- she's new, from the provinces, going straight to the top. I don't want to put words into your mouth, but a word from us and we could make her.\\
'''Moon:''' ''[Dryly]'' I suppose you've made dozens of them, like that.\\
[...]\\
'''Birdboot:''' Oh, I know what people will say... 'there goes Birdboot, buttering up his latest' --\\
'''Moon:''' Ignore them --\\
'''Birdboot:''' But I rise above that -- the fact is, I genuinely believe her performance to be one of the summits in the range of contemporary theatre. The radiance, the inner sadness... the part as written is a mere cypher, but she manages to make Cynthia a real person --\\
'''Moon:''' ''[Expecting Felicity, who had already caught Birdboot's eye]'' CYNTHIA?\\
'''Birdboot:''' And should she, as a result, care to meet me over a drink, simply by way of, er... ''thanking'' me, as it were --\\
'''Moon:''' Why, you fickle old bastard!
-->'''Birdboot:''' For God's sake, Moon, what's the matter with you? You could do yourself some good, spotting her first time out -- she's new, from the provinces, going straight to the top. I don't want to put words into your mouth, but a word from us and we could make her.\\
'''Moon:''' ''[Dryly]'' I suppose you've made dozens of them, like that.\\
[...]\\
'''Birdboot:''' Oh, I know what people will say... 'there goes Birdboot, buttering up his latest' --\\
'''Moon:''' Ignore them --\\
'''Birdboot:''' But I rise above that -- the fact is, I genuinely believe her performance to be one of the summits in the range of contemporary theatre. The radiance, the inner sadness... the part as written is a mere cypher, but she manages to make Cynthia a real person --\\
'''Moon:''' ''[Expecting Felicity, who had already caught Birdboot's eye]'' CYNTHIA?\\
'''Birdboot:''' And should she, as a result, care to meet me over a drink, simply by way of, er... ''thanking'' me, as it were --\\
'''Moon:''' Why, you fickle old bastard!
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Changed line(s) 25 (click to see context) from:
* StrawCritic: Moon is an incredibly anally retentive over-analytical type who insists on comparing the play they are watching to the works of Creator/JeanPaulSartre. Birdboot is a Dirty Old Man who gives high praise to any actress he fancies seducing.
to:
* StrawCritic: Moon is an incredibly anally retentive over-analytical type who insists on comparing the play they are watching to the works of Creator/JeanPaulSartre. Birdboot is a Dirty Old Man DirtyOldMan who gives high praise to any actress he fancies seducing.
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* SuspectIsHatless: The suspicious man lurking near Muldoon Manor is described over the
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* SuspectIsHatless: The suspicious man lurking near Muldoon Manor is unhelpfully described over thethe radio as being "of a medium height and build and youngish", while wearing "a darkish suit with a lightish shirt." [[FailedASpotCheck A man fitting that description immediately creeps by Mrs. Drudge, who doesn't even notice.]]
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* BeneathNotice: [[spoiler:As Moon is Higgs's stand-in whenever he's indisposed (and has a much smaller influence on the theatrical world as a result), so is Puckeridge his substitute, which gives Moon a little bit of spiteful satisfaction -- "nobody knows [what he's like as a critic]", he sneers, because "there's always been me and Higgs". Birdboot doesn't even know who the man is at first or what he looks like, while Moon can't recognize him until he takes off his disguise as Magnus; by then, he's already killed Higgs and Birdboot, and he promptly eliminates his final obstacle to fame and success.]]
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* LesserStar: Moon is only the deputy critic (to Higgs) and feels bitter about that - he gets his own CharacterFilibuster on the plight of the understudy. Still at least he isn't Puckeridge - the understudy's understudy.
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* LesserStar: Moon is only the deputy critic (to Higgs) and feels bitter about that - -- he gets his own CharacterFilibuster on the plight of the understudy. Still Still, at least he isn't Puckeridge - Puckeridge, the understudy's understudy.
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* SuspectIsHatless: The suspicious man lurking near Muldoon Manor is described over the
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* ReviewsAreTheGospel: In-universe and exaggerated, as the two critics cannot stop delivering self-important pronouncements of opinion, Moon's being high-minded and Birdboot's more earthy. Birdboot is such an esteemed elder scribbler that his review (presumably a rave) of what's currently playing at the Theatre Royal has been reprinted ''in full'' as a huge neon sign on the building, to which he feigns modesty; not to be outdone, Moon then gives a spontaneous review of the sign itself.
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Changed line(s) 26,28 (click to see context) from:
-->'''Radio voice''': The killer has been spotted in the vicinity of isolated Muldoon Manor.\\
'''Mrs. Drudge''': Muldoon Manor?\\
'''Radio voice''': Yes, Muldoon Manor.
'''Mrs. Drudge''': Muldoon Manor?\\
'''Radio voice''': Yes, Muldoon Manor.
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-->'''Radio voice''': voice:''' The killer has been spotted in the vicinity of isolated Muldoon Manor.\\
'''Mrs.Drudge''': Drudge:''' Muldoon Manor?\\
'''Radiovoice''': voice:''' Yes, Muldoon Manor.
'''Mrs.
'''Radio
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--> [[spoiler: '''Birdboot:''' ''(examining the dead body on stage)'' It's Higgs.]]
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* WhamLine:
--> [[spoiler: '''Birdboot:''' ''(examining the dead body on stage)'' It's Higgs.]]
--> [[spoiler: '''Birdboot:''' ''(examining the dead body on stage)'' It's Higgs.]]
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Changed line(s) 23 (click to see context) from:
* StrawCritic: Moon is an incredibly anally retentive over-analytical type who insists on comparing the play they are watching to the works of Sartre. Birdboot is a Dirty Old Man who gives high praise to any actress he fancies seducing.
to:
* StrawCritic: Moon is an incredibly anally retentive over-analytical type who insists on comparing the play they are watching to the works of Sartre.Creator/JeanPaulSartre. Birdboot is a Dirty Old Man who gives high praise to any actress he fancies seducing.
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* BilingualBonus: The French phrases that one of the characters rattles off while playing translate to something you might hear at a ''roulette'' table: "No more bets ... red and black ... zero!"
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* BilingualBonus: The French phrases that one of the characters rattles off while playing cards translate to something you might hear at a ''roulette'' table: "No more bets ... red and black ... zero!"
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alphabetical order, example indentation
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* BilingualBonus: The French phrases that one of the characters rattles off while playing translate to something you might hear at a ''roulette'' table: "No more bets ... red and black ... zero!"
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** BilingualBonus: The French phrases that one of the characters rattles off while playing translate to something you might hear at a ''roulette'' table: "No more bets ... red and black ... zero!"
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** BilingualBonus: The French phrases that one of the characters rattles off while playing translate to something you might hear at a ''roulette'' table: "No more bets ... red and black ... zero!"
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* {{Calvinball}}: The game of "Pontoon Bridge" in the play-within-the-play.
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* {{Calvinball}}: The game of "Pontoon Bridge" in the play-within-the-play. When Birdboot ends up replacing Simon in the game, he has no idea what the other three players are doing, but when he throws a card down and shouts "And ''I'll call your bluff!''", Magnus groans and Lady Muldoon congratulates him; after another even more bizarre round, he tries it again with similar results.
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Sure Why Not is now Ascended Fanon. It\'s also Trivia. Bad examples and ZCE are being removed - If you disagree, feel free to restore with proper context.
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* SureWhyNot: The original stage directions had Moon and Birdboot sat at the back of stage facing the audience outwards. However, almost every director has found it easier to have the critics sat towards the side of the stage at the front.....and Tom Stoppard himself has admitted that this was the best place for them.
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* SureWhyNot: The original stage directions had Moon and Birdboot sat at the back of stage facing the audience outwards. However, almost every director has found it easier to have the critics sat towards the side of the stage at the front.....and Tom Stoppard himself has admitted that this was the best place for them.
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Moving YMMV
Deleted line(s) 28,29 (click to see context) :
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: Moon's approach to his reviewing what is basically a simple countryhouse whodunnit.
--> "Already in the opening stages we note the classic impact of thee catalystic figure - the outsider - plunging through to the centre of an ordered world and setting up the disruptions - the shock waves...But there is more to it than that"
--> "Already in the opening stages we note the classic impact of thee catalystic figure - the outsider - plunging through to the centre of an ordered world and setting up the disruptions - the shock waves...But there is more to it than that"
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Namespace
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''The Real Inspector Hound'' is a play by TomStoppard, first produced in 1967. The play revolves around two critics, Moon and Birdboot, attending the opening night of the titular PlayWithinAPlay (a transparent Creator/AgathaChristie spoof) before gradually getting sucked into the action themselves.
to:
''The Real Inspector Hound'' is a play by TomStoppard, Creator/TomStoppard, first produced in 1967. The play revolves around two critics, Moon and Birdboot, attending the opening night of the titular PlayWithinAPlay (a transparent Creator/AgathaChristie spoof) before gradually getting sucked into the action themselves.
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* MagnificentBastard: [[spoiler:Puckeridge alias Magnus alias The Real Inspector Hound]]
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from trope pages
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* ChekhovsGunman: Played with.
* ClosedCircle: The play-within-the-play is a murder mystery of the "isolated house cut off by bad weather" variety.
* CutPhoneLines: In the play-within-the-play, the murderer cuts the phone wires of Muldoon Manor. It fails to prevent the phone from ringing again later in the scene after the play reboots.
* ClosedCircle: The play-within-the-play is a murder mystery of the "isolated house cut off by bad weather" variety.
* CutPhoneLines: In the play-within-the-play, the murderer cuts the phone wires of Muldoon Manor. It fails to prevent the phone from ringing again later in the scene after the play reboots.
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* MetafictionalTitle: ''The Real Inspector Hound'' is the title of both the play itself and the play-within-the-play.
* MrExposition: Mrs Drudge can hardly open her mouth without emitting poorly-shoehorned-in exposition.
-->I'm afraid there is no one of that name here, this all very mysterious and I'm sure it's leading up to something, I hope nothing is amiss for we, that is Lady Muldoon and her houseguests, are here cut off from the world, including Magnus, the wheel-chair-ridden half-brother of the ladyship's husband Lord Albert Muldoon who ten tears ago went for a walk on the cliff and was never seen again.
* OldDarkHouse: Muldoon Manor in the play-within-the-play.
* OnceMoreWithClarity: Done with a twist in the second act. Within the first act of the show on stage, there are several non-sequitur lines by the characters. In the second act, when [[spoiler:Birdboot, and later Moon, join the cast onstage]], these events are replayed again with expanded dialog that alternately makes more sense and comes off as even more non-sequitur.
* OneSceneTwoMonologues: The early conversation in which Moon reflects on the plight of the understudy theatre critic while Birdboot explains his designs on the play's leading lady.
* RepeatingSoTheAudienceCanHear: Every telephone conversation in the play-within-the-play.
* MrExposition: Mrs Drudge can hardly open her mouth without emitting poorly-shoehorned-in exposition.
-->I'm afraid there is no one of that name here, this all very mysterious and I'm sure it's leading up to something, I hope nothing is amiss for we, that is Lady Muldoon and her houseguests, are here cut off from the world, including Magnus, the wheel-chair-ridden half-brother of the ladyship's husband Lord Albert Muldoon who ten tears ago went for a walk on the cliff and was never seen again.
* OldDarkHouse: Muldoon Manor in the play-within-the-play.
* OnceMoreWithClarity: Done with a twist in the second act. Within the first act of the show on stage, there are several non-sequitur lines by the characters. In the second act, when [[spoiler:Birdboot, and later Moon, join the cast onstage]], these events are replayed again with expanded dialog that alternately makes more sense and comes off as even more non-sequitur.
* OneSceneTwoMonologues: The early conversation in which Moon reflects on the plight of the understudy theatre critic while Birdboot explains his designs on the play's leading lady.
* RepeatingSoTheAudienceCanHear: Every telephone conversation in the play-within-the-play.
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* TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat: The radio announcement in the play-within-the-play. (Made doubly fun by stage directions which suggest that the radio voice be pre-recorded for the show.)
-->'''Radio voice''': The killer has been spotted in the vicinity of isolated Muldoon Manor.\\
'''Mrs. Drudge''': Muldoon Manor?\\
'''Radio voice''': Yes, Muldoon Manor.
-->'''Radio voice''': The killer has been spotted in the vicinity of isolated Muldoon Manor.\\
'''Mrs. Drudge''': Muldoon Manor?\\
'''Radio voice''': Yes, Muldoon Manor.
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from Tom Stoppard
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* ShowWithinAShow
* StrawCritic: Moon is an incredibly anally retentive over-analytical type who insists on comparing the play they are watching to the works of Sartre. Birdboot is a Dirty Old Man who gives high praise to any actress he fancies seducing.
* StrawCritic: Moon is an incredibly anally retentive over-analytical type who insists on comparing the play they are watching to the works of Sartre. Birdboot is a Dirty Old Man who gives high praise to any actress he fancies seducing.
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from Tom Stoppard
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* {{Calvinball}}: The game of "Pontoon Bridge" in the play-within-the-play.
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* ShoutOut: The whole play is a parody of ''Theatre/TheMousetrap'' with references to ''TheHoundOfTheBaskervilles'' dotted throughout.
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* ShoutOut: The whole play is a parody of ''Theatre/TheMousetrap'' with references to ''TheHoundOfTheBaskervilles'' ''Literature/TheHoundOfTheBaskervilles'' dotted throughout.
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namespace move
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''The Real Inspector Hound'' is a play by TomStoppard, first produced in 1967. The play revolves around two critics, Moon and Birdboot, attending the opening night of the titular PlayWithinAPlay (a transparent Creator/AgathaChristie spoof) before gradually getting sucked into the action themselves.
----
!!Tropes:
* AsYouKnow: Parodied to the hilt. ''All'' the characters in the PlayWithinAPlay indulge in this.
-->"I'm a friend of Lady Muldoon, the lady of the house having just made her acquaintance through a mutual friend, Felicity Cunningham"
-->"Major Magnus, the crippled half-brother of Lord Muldoon who turned up out of the blue from Canada"
* LesserStar: Moon is only the deputy critic (to Higgs) and feels bitter about that - he gets his own CharacterFilibuster on the plight of the understudy. Still at least he isn't Puckeridge - the understudy's understudy.
* MagnificentBastard: [[spoiler:Puckeridge alias Magnus alias The Real Inspector Hound]]
* ShoutOut: The whole play is a parody of ''Theatre/TheMousetrap'' with references to ''TheHoundOfTheBaskervilles'' dotted throughout.
* StylisticSuck: The whole of the PlayWithinAPlay.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: Moon's approach to his reviewing what is basically a simple countryhouse whodunnit.
--> "Already in the opening stages we note the classic impact of thee catalystic figure - the outsider - plunging through to the centre of an ordered world and setting up the disruptions - the shock waves...But there is more to it than that"
----
----
!!Tropes:
* AsYouKnow: Parodied to the hilt. ''All'' the characters in the PlayWithinAPlay indulge in this.
-->"I'm a friend of Lady Muldoon, the lady of the house having just made her acquaintance through a mutual friend, Felicity Cunningham"
-->"Major Magnus, the crippled half-brother of Lord Muldoon who turned up out of the blue from Canada"
* LesserStar: Moon is only the deputy critic (to Higgs) and feels bitter about that - he gets his own CharacterFilibuster on the plight of the understudy. Still at least he isn't Puckeridge - the understudy's understudy.
* MagnificentBastard: [[spoiler:Puckeridge alias Magnus alias The Real Inspector Hound]]
* ShoutOut: The whole play is a parody of ''Theatre/TheMousetrap'' with references to ''TheHoundOfTheBaskervilles'' dotted throughout.
* StylisticSuck: The whole of the PlayWithinAPlay.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: Moon's approach to his reviewing what is basically a simple countryhouse whodunnit.
--> "Already in the opening stages we note the classic impact of thee catalystic figure - the outsider - plunging through to the centre of an ordered world and setting up the disruptions - the shock waves...But there is more to it than that"
----
