Plays 2: The Dissolution of Dominic Boot / 'M' is for Moon Among Other Things / If You're Glad I'll Be Frank / Albert's Bridge / Where are They Now? / Artist Descending a Staircase / The Dog it Was That Died / In the Native State

by Tom Stoppard

Plays
The Dissolution of Dominic Boot
'M' is for Moon Among Other Things
If You're Glad I'll Be Frank
Albert's Bridge
Where Are They Now?
Artist Descending a Staircase
The Dog It Was That Died
In the Native State Introduced by the author, this second collection of work by Tom Stoppard contains his radio plays, written between 1964 and 1991. These plays reflect the full range of Stoppard's gifts as well as his craftsmanship and versatility. His work for radio complements (and sometimes prefigures) his work for the stage. Included in this volume is In the Native State , which became the stage play Indian Ink . Albert's Bridge won the Italia Prize and In the Native State won a Sony Award.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre, 20th Century, Satire

320 pages, Paperback

First published February 6, 1997

About the author

Sir Tom Stoppard was a Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and political freedom, often delving into the deeper philosophical thematics of society. Stoppard has been a playwright of the National Theatre and is one of the most internationally performed dramatists of his generation. He was knighted for his contribution to theatre by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997.

Born in Czechoslovakia, Stoppard left as a child refugee, fleeing imminent Nazi occupation. He settled with his family in Britain after the war, in 1946, having spent the previous three years (1943–1946) in a boarding school in Darjeeling in the Indian Himalayas. After being educated at schools in Nottingham and Yorkshire, Stoppard became a journalist, a drama critic and then, in 1960, a playwright.

Stoppard's most prominent plays include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966), Jumpers (1972), Travesties (1974), Night and Day (1978), The Real Thing (1982), Arcadia (1993), The Invention of Love (1997), The Coast of Utopia (2002), Rock 'n' Roll (2006) and Leopoldstadt (2020). He wrote the screenplays for Brazil (1985), Empire of the Sun (1987), The Russia House (1990), Billy Bathgate (1991), Shakespeare in Love (1998), Enigma (2001), and Anna Karenina (2012), as well as the HBO limited series Parade's End (2013). He directed the film Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), an adaptation of his own 1966 play, with Gary Oldman and Tim Roth as the leads.

He has received numerous awards and honours including an Academy Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, and five Tony Awards. In 2008, The Daily Telegraph ranked him number 11 in their list of the "100 most powerful people in British culture". It was announced in June 2019 that Stoppard had written a new play, Leopoldstadt, set in the Jewish community of early 20th-century Vienna. The play premiered in January 2020 at Wyndham's Theatre. The play went on to win the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play and later the 2022 Tony Award for Best Play.

Reviews

[Emilie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A glittering collection of absurdist theatre, with a single exception: In The Native State.

I saw someone say that these read, in the best way possible, like Monty Python skits and they do! Sharp and witty, perhaps even provoking the ‘ha! Yes, very good.’ of a Radio 4 listener. As in ‘It Was The Dog That Died’, where a double agent forgets his identity, having to act as a genuine Russian spy to maintain his credibility and, therefore, usefulness to Britain. Or with ‘If You’re Glad I’ll Be Frank’, where the voice of a dial-up clock loses her mind over the absurdity of the passage of time. Or even, with a nod to Roland’s Barthes, ‘Albert’s Bridge’ whose unlikely painter marvels at the Eiffel Tower’s beautiful inutility. From there, one might, just as from a bridge, admire the dots passing in B flat, except, without having to compromise oneself with function. “The pointlessness takes one’s breath away—a tower connects nothing, it stands only so that one can go up and look down.” But, where the rest of the collection grapples with meaninglessness, In The Native State produces flesh and blood. It is not in its analysis that this text takes form, but in its creation. And so, we are plunged, irresistibly, into a work of art which defies completion, capturing something just beyond depiction. It teeters on the edge of being made too visible. The urge to crystallise, to extract all there is from a single event at the expense of the peculiarities of human emotion, is what presents the greatest loss. A dual tragedy: that of a single life and of our inability to capture it.

My only complaint is that Stoppard’s criticism of criticism has me in the unfortunate position of having to uphold my Goodreads Review Streak without infringing copyright law by reproducing the whole text here.

[James F · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second volume of Stoppard's Collected Plays, originally published as The Plays for Radio 1964-1991. There are eight radio plays in the volume. The first five are early, short works, somewhat witty but not particularly significant, which remind me of Monty Python skits: The Dissolution of Dominic Boot, a slight farce about a man who is trying to get money to pay a cab, and keeps running the meter up to absurd amounts; M is for Moon Among Other Things, a short play about a married couple who no longer communicate; If You're Glad I'll be Frank, about an operator who tells the time on the phone; Albert's Bridge, about a man who paints a bridge; and Where Are They Now?, a satire of the British public (what we call private prep) school alumni who remember things in comically inaccurate ways. The last three are somewhat more interesting, and are related to his stage plays: Artist Descending a Staircase, which is about modern art and foreshadows After Magritte and Travesties; The Dog It Was That Died, a double agent spy story with some resemblances to Hapgood; and In the Native State, which was expanded into Indian Ink.

[Meg Briers · Rating 5 out of 5]

no writer lives as rent free in my head as tom stoppard, everything he writes is just gold (apart from m is for moon)

expected "Albert's Bridge" to be my favourite, still thinking regularly of "If You're Glad" and "The Dog It Was That Died"

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

As much as I admire the stagecraft, at least what takes place on the page as I have yet to see much more than Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead and Arcadia on stage, Stoppard strikes gold with the radio plays. They are all an excellent example of the range of play and playfulness in his collected work, and with visuals not so much a distraction (at least not so many stage directions to wonder over) each character is given voice to the absurd and astute observations about life during a couple of decades in England. Personal favourites are Dominic Boot, Albert's Bridge and The Dog It Was, but others just as remarkable.

[Edmund Chattoe-Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anthologising for completeness means that some volumes suffer at the expense of others. This is one of the winners. Any book that contains Dissolution, Albert's, Dog and, particularly, Native State is well worth the time of the reader. Moon, Where and Glad feel a bit slight, though very well put together. Native State is something unusual for Stoppard. Though very witty it is not primarily comedy and it doesn't obtrude a "headline idea" (but it is a very good play nonetheless.) Artist is about interpretation and how events admit of many meanings. Interestingly, two specific lines are either stolen by Travesties or vice versa (which you might only notice reading a lot of Stoppard at once). Dog has the lovely idea of a spy who has "doubled" so many times he can't remember his true allegiance. In the only witty blurb comment I recall, it is described as a Le Carre/cature! Dissolution is a conceit but an excellent one, about riding round in a taxi running up a bill to try and raise money to pay it. Thoroughly recommended.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

The dissolution of Dominic Boot - 3 Very stressful. I know people who live like that. Sometimes I feel like I'm having that kind of day. Well written, but not for me.
M is for Moon among other things - 4 Oof. Millie needs a new start. The moments with the encyclopaedia continue to haunt me.
If you're glad, I'll be Frank - 4 How very pre-Black Mirror of you, Tom.
Albert's Bridge - 4 When the intellectual mind finds some peace. Nothing is forever. Resist all expectations.
Where are they now? - 3 Intriguing, but I just couldn't quite stick. May give another go in the future.
Artist descending a staircase - 5 This piece had so many things I am already interested in, and I really enjoyed the layers he built up.
The dog it was that died - 4 A mix of philosophy and espionage. I enjoyed so many scenes - the start; the introduction to the home; the bit with the cheese - but it didn't quite hang together for me.
In the Native State - 4 A story that seemed to meander but packed a punch. Just enough unwritten to maintain curiosity, but it was laid out in a way that gave me great satisfaction.

The copy I read didn't include On 'Dover Beach'.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

*** Albert's Bridge -- This is a thought-provoking exploration of perspective, and how things look more complicated up close than they do from a distance. Stoppard sneaks in a little poetry throughout. Dave is very funny. It takes some easy swipes at the free market, but otherwise is a clever, well-done work. Nothing monumental, but enriching. I highly recommend the BBC Plays audio version.

[vicky ♪ · Rating 3 out of 5]

shoutout to Artist Descending a Staircase. not necessarily because it was highbrow (none of these plays are), but because it felt so much like a movie, maybe a short film, but was enough, concise, and 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐲.

[Chambers Stevens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Minor Stoppard....
U can skip this one.

[Calvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I very much liked Albert's Bridge, 'M' is for Moon Among Other Things, and In the Native State. There is a lot of human nature packed into these plays, as I am sure there are in the others, but I didn't quite grasp them as viscerally. All were enjoyable though.

[Veronica Liew · Rating 3 out of 5]

A set of radio plays - a medium of plays that I am encountering in book form for the first time - started off quite promosing with "The Dissolution of Dominic Boot" but the rest began to shine less for me. Perhaps I am not familiar with certain British mannerisms. Or maybe the more existential pieces didn't sit so well with my existential state, but the power of the story came across stronger in the final play: "In the Native State", which painted a much more fascinating cultural clash set during the final days of the British Empire in India. For some humor in the first few shorter plays, this collection gets 3 stars from me.

[MacK · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of radio plays seems to enable Stoppard to experiment far more than his normal stage fare.

That said, only the first The Dissolution of Dominic Boot is standard funny Stoppard. And only the last three: Artist Descending the Staircase, The Dog it Was that Died & In The Native State are actually engaging pieces of drama. The others are extremely ho-hum (if it's possible to be that).

But the creativity of characters, the sting of the language and the invention of narrative times are fascinating to read through and study (even if they would be nearly impossible to perform).

It's not great, but it's Stoppard, which makes it better than most things.

[Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found myself enjoying this collection of plays from Tom Stoppard quite a bit more than volume one of his drama. His work is often filled with funny/sad situations of the sort that have always resonated with me.

Though there is nothing here to rival his great Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, I especially liked Albert’s Bridge and the concluding short piece, On ‘Dover Beach’.

These are not deeply emotional plays, but there is plenty of witty wordplay and intellectual puzzle boxes. I do not claim to be any great connoisseur of modern drama, but there are few playwrights that I would go out of my way to read like I do for Stoppard. Even when he's boring, he's interesting.

[Af · Rating 4 out of 5]

(but 5* for Indian Ink)

[scarlettraces · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the Native State made me cry.