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Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth
Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso
80 pages, Paperback
First published December 31, 1979
7 people are currently reading
132 people want to read
About the author
Tom Stoppard
147 books1,013 followersSir 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.
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.
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July 24, 2025
هفت روز، هفت نمایشنامه- نمایشنامهٔ اول
«هملتِ داگ» و «مکبثِ کاهوت» لازم و ملزوم یکدیگرند، نمایشنامههایی بهمپیوسته. همانطور که از نامشان برمیآید، اقتباسهایی آوانگارد از هملت و مکبثاند (دقیقتر بگوییم: موضوعشان تلاشهایی آوانگارد برای اجرای این دو نمایشنامه است). در اینجا نویسنده به یک زبانِ به تعبیر ویتگنشتاین «خصوصی» رسیده است، زبانی که درواقع چیزی شبیه به یک رمزگذاری است، مثلا از الان من به جای استخر میگویم بزغاله. بچهها من میرم بزغاله. به همین سادگی، به شرطی که برای «بچهها»، «من» و «میرم» هم معادل پیدا کنید: خربزهها کبوتر میپره بزغاله.
این زبان تنها برای چند نفر معنی دارد، که میشوند «بخشی» از شخصیتهای این اثر، که میخواهند هملت را تئاتر کنند. جداازاینکه جملات مذکور در کروشه ترجمه شدهاند، به قول یکی از شخصیتهای کتاب، این زبان فراگرفتنی نیست، به دست میآید. من خودم گاهی آنقدر به این زبان خصوصی عادت کرده بودم که با دیدن یک دیالوگ عادی جا میخوردم.
{هملتِ داگ}
«خاطرات خائناند. یک لحظه، گمشده در کارناوالی از عشرتی، با رایحهٔ دلانگیز کودکی، با نئون چشمکزن بلوغ… بعد به جایی هدایت میشوی که دل نداری بروی… جایی تاریک و سرد، مملو از اشکال نمناک و مبهم، که امیدوار بودی فراموش شده باشند. خاطرات میتواند پست باشند، چندشآور، کوچولوهای وحشی! عین بچهها! ها ها. باری، آیا میتوان بدون آنان زیست؟ خاطرات اساس استدلالهای ما هستند. اگر نتوانیم با آنها روبرو شویم، داریم استدلالهایمان را هم انکار میکنیم. گرچه، چراکهنه؟ ما که مجبور نیستیم عقلانی زندگی کنیم! پس هر گاه خود را محبوس در قطار افکار ناخوشآیند یافتی که به سوی گذشته رهسپار است، به خاطر داشته باش که جنون نیز یک گزینه است. جنون یک خروج اضطراری است. پس میتوانی بپری بیرون، و در را به روی تمام آن رخدادهای رؤیاگون ببندی. میتوانی قفلش کنی؛ برای همیشه.»
آنچه خواندید، قسمتی از کتاب «هملتِ داگ، مکبثِ کاهوت» نبود، بلکه بخشی از مونولوگ جوکر در کمیک کیلینگجوک بود به قلم آلن مور بزرگ. اما کمیک بس است. برویم پی فیلم، فیلم «جوکر: جنون مشترک». فیلمی که برخلاف جوکر یک، هم یک شاهکار سینمایی بود و هم یک شکست تجاری. تارانتینوی دانا اما دربارهاش گفت: جوکر این فیلم را کاگردانی کرد. او به طرفداران کمیک، به تماشاگران و به هالیوود، میگوید: فاک یو!
دوخطی هملت میشود اینکه فلکزدهای بود که عمویش پدرش را کشت و روح پدرش بر او نازل شد و هویت قاتل را افشا کرد. هملت در اینجا دو تصمیم گرفت:
1. خودش را به دیوانگی بزند.
2. یک تئاتر اجرا کند.
او در این تئاتر میخواست فرضیهٔ پدرش را اجرا کند تا ببیند عمویش به آن چه واکنشی نشان میدهد. «خود را به نادانی زدن» که در فرهنگ ما از طریق بهلول موضوع آشنایی است، راهی ست که جوکر پیشنهاد میکند تا مجبور نباشیم هفت جلد درجستجویزمانازدسترفته بنویسیم: یک خروج اضطراری. گویی هملت دارد به یک مکانیسم دفاعی آری میگوید…
حال آن دو تصمیم هملت را کنار هم بگذارید: نتیجه میشود هملتِ داگ! انگار استوپارد (مانند تاد فیلیپس که دگردیسی شد به جوکر) دگردیسی میشود به هملت، و نمایشنامهٔ شکسپیر را از زاویهدید هملت مینویسد: حالا هملت میخواهد شکسپیر را اجرا کند!
شکسپیر میگفت: زندگی کمدی است برای کسی که میاندیشد، و تراژدی است برای آنکه احساساتی است. و گویی استوپارد به او پاسخ میدهد: پس تو احساساتی بودی که هملت را تراژیک نوشتی، چون نسخهٔ من کمدی است.
یک تجربهٔ شخصی: در زبان ابداعی استوپارد (حداقل در ترجمهاش) معادل «جناب» میشود «حرامزاده». شغل من پشتیبانی تلفنی است، و خواستم بگویم من هم وقتی پشت تلفن میگویم «جناب» منظورم همان است. :دی
{مکبثِ کاهوت}
یکبار شاهد مشاجرهٔ لفظی صاحبخانه با مستأجر طبقهٔ بالایی بودم که سه ماه میشد اجاره نداده بود. مشاجرهای که لابهلایش چندبار صاحبخانهٔ پیر ما مستأجر جوان را هل داد و او هیچ مقاومتی نکرد. بعدها صاحبخانه به من گفت دیدی هلش میدادم هیچ کاری نمیکرد؟ اینا دیهبگیرن. و من دچار یک مکاشفه شدم. قانون او را از کاری که خیلی دلش میخواست انجام دهد منع کرده بود. درواقع این ترس بود که مانع او شد، نه انسانیت یا شفقت. مکاشفهام این بود که من هم شرایط زیادی را تجربه میکنم که دوست دارم نظری در خصوص مذهب یا سیاست اعلام کنم، اما فضا به شکلی است که میترسم. فکر کردم، ترس من و او، دستکم به خاطر باعثوبانیاش، وجوه اشتراکی دارند. همانطور که یک شخص میترسد توهمات یک شخص صاحبقدرت را به رویش بیاورد، یک آدم پرخاشگر هم میترسد کتککاری کند. درواقع این معجزهٔ عالم سیاست است: جایی که کنار هم نهادن چند کلمه، میتواند به اندازهٔ یک ضربهٔ فیزیکی جرم باشد. سلمان رشدی به خاطر نوشتن یک کتاب باید بمیرد، دیگری برای کشتن بیست نفر آدم: از نظر سیاستمدار این دو فرقی ندارند، درحالیکه این دو اصلا ربطی به هم ندارند. اینها نباید برایمان عادی بشود، هرگز.
مکبث را لازم نیست خلاصه کنیم، چون به یک لحظهاش نیاز داریم: صدای نواختن بر در. مکبث که مرتکب قتل شده، وقتی صدای خواختن بر در را میشنود، قالب تهی میکند. «مکبثِ کاهوت» دربارهٔ تلاش شخصی به نام کاهوت (دوست چکی استوپارد (خود استوپارد هم متولد چک بود)) برای اجرای مکبث، هنرمندی ممنوعالکار که نمیتواند تئاتر را رها کند. استوپارد یک مچکات رؤیایی میآفرید: یکسانانگاری ترس از شنیدن صدای نواختن بر در، چه اگر مکبث قاتل باشی، چه اگر روشنفکری که دارد دور از چشم قانون در آپارتمانش برای عدهای مکبث را اجرا میکند.
به طور خلاصه: در جامعهای که همگان از پلیس میهراسند، یک جای کار میلنگد.
گرامیداشت همخوانان عزیز ^__^
«هملتِ داگ» و «مکبثِ کاهوت» لازم و ملزوم یکدیگرند، نمایشنامههایی بهمپیوسته. همانطور که از نامشان برمیآید، اقتباسهایی آوانگارد از هملت و مکبثاند (دقیقتر بگوییم: موضوعشان تلاشهایی آوانگارد برای اجرای این دو نمایشنامه است). در اینجا نویسنده به یک زبانِ به تعبیر ویتگنشتاین «خصوصی» رسیده است، زبانی که درواقع چیزی شبیه به یک رمزگذاری است، مثلا از الان من به جای استخر میگویم بزغاله. بچهها من میرم بزغاله. به همین سادگی، به شرطی که برای «بچهها»، «من» و «میرم» هم معادل پیدا کنید: خربزهها کبوتر میپره بزغاله.
این زبان تنها برای چند نفر معنی دارد، که میشوند «بخشی» از شخصیتهای این اثر، که میخواهند هملت را تئاتر کنند. جداازاینکه جملات مذکور در کروشه ترجمه شدهاند، به قول یکی از شخصیتهای کتاب، این زبان فراگرفتنی نیست، به دست میآید. من خودم گاهی آنقدر به این زبان خصوصی عادت کرده بودم که با دیدن یک دیالوگ عادی جا میخوردم.
{هملتِ داگ}
«خاطرات خائناند. یک لحظه، گمشده در کارناوالی از عشرتی، با رایحهٔ دلانگیز کودکی، با نئون چشمکزن بلوغ… بعد به جایی هدایت میشوی که دل نداری بروی… جایی تاریک و سرد، مملو از اشکال نمناک و مبهم، که امیدوار بودی فراموش شده باشند. خاطرات میتواند پست باشند، چندشآور، کوچولوهای وحشی! عین بچهها! ها ها. باری، آیا میتوان بدون آنان زیست؟ خاطرات اساس استدلالهای ما هستند. اگر نتوانیم با آنها روبرو شویم، داریم استدلالهایمان را هم انکار میکنیم. گرچه، چراکهنه؟ ما که مجبور نیستیم عقلانی زندگی کنیم! پس هر گاه خود را محبوس در قطار افکار ناخوشآیند یافتی که به سوی گذشته رهسپار است، به خاطر داشته باش که جنون نیز یک گزینه است. جنون یک خروج اضطراری است. پس میتوانی بپری بیرون، و در را به روی تمام آن رخدادهای رؤیاگون ببندی. میتوانی قفلش کنی؛ برای همیشه.»
آنچه خواندید، قسمتی از کتاب «هملتِ داگ، مکبثِ کاهوت» نبود، بلکه بخشی از مونولوگ جوکر در کمیک کیلینگجوک بود به قلم آلن مور بزرگ. اما کمیک بس است. برویم پی فیلم، فیلم «جوکر: جنون مشترک». فیلمی که برخلاف جوکر یک، هم یک شاهکار سینمایی بود و هم یک شکست تجاری. تارانتینوی دانا اما دربارهاش گفت: جوکر این فیلم را کاگردانی کرد. او به طرفداران کمیک، به تماشاگران و به هالیوود، میگوید: فاک یو!
دوخطی هملت میشود اینکه فلکزدهای بود که عمویش پدرش را کشت و روح پدرش بر او نازل شد و هویت قاتل را افشا کرد. هملت در اینجا دو تصمیم گرفت:
1. خودش را به دیوانگی بزند.
2. یک تئاتر اجرا کند.
او در این تئاتر میخواست فرضیهٔ پدرش را اجرا کند تا ببیند عمویش به آن چه واکنشی نشان میدهد. «خود را به نادانی زدن» که در فرهنگ ما از طریق بهلول موضوع آشنایی است، راهی ست که جوکر پیشنهاد میکند تا مجبور نباشیم هفت جلد درجستجویزمانازدسترفته بنویسیم: یک خروج اضطراری. گویی هملت دارد به یک مکانیسم دفاعی آری میگوید…
حال آن دو تصمیم هملت را کنار هم بگذارید: نتیجه میشود هملتِ داگ! انگار استوپارد (مانند تاد فیلیپس که دگردیسی شد به جوکر) دگردیسی میشود به هملت، و نمایشنامهٔ شکسپیر را از زاویهدید هملت مینویسد: حالا هملت میخواهد شکسپیر را اجرا کند!
شکسپیر میگفت: زندگی کمدی است برای کسی که میاندیشد، و تراژدی است برای آنکه احساساتی است. و گویی استوپارد به او پاسخ میدهد: پس تو احساساتی بودی که هملت را تراژیک نوشتی، چون نسخهٔ من کمدی است.
یک تجربهٔ شخصی: در زبان ابداعی استوپارد (حداقل در ترجمهاش) معادل «جناب» میشود «حرامزاده». شغل من پشتیبانی تلفنی است، و خواستم بگویم من هم وقتی پشت تلفن میگویم «جناب» منظورم همان است. :دی
{مکبثِ کاهوت}
یکبار شاهد مشاجرهٔ لفظی صاحبخانه با مستأجر طبقهٔ بالایی بودم که سه ماه میشد اجاره نداده بود. مشاجرهای که لابهلایش چندبار صاحبخانهٔ پیر ما مستأجر جوان را هل داد و او هیچ مقاومتی نکرد. بعدها صاحبخانه به من گفت دیدی هلش میدادم هیچ کاری نمیکرد؟ اینا دیهبگیرن. و من دچار یک مکاشفه شدم. قانون او را از کاری که خیلی دلش میخواست انجام دهد منع کرده بود. درواقع این ترس بود که مانع او شد، نه انسانیت یا شفقت. مکاشفهام این بود که من هم شرایط زیادی را تجربه میکنم که دوست دارم نظری در خصوص مذهب یا سیاست اعلام کنم، اما فضا به شکلی است که میترسم. فکر کردم، ترس من و او، دستکم به خاطر باعثوبانیاش، وجوه اشتراکی دارند. همانطور که یک شخص میترسد توهمات یک شخص صاحبقدرت را به رویش بیاورد، یک آدم پرخاشگر هم میترسد کتککاری کند. درواقع این معجزهٔ عالم سیاست است: جایی که کنار هم نهادن چند کلمه، میتواند به اندازهٔ یک ضربهٔ فیزیکی جرم باشد. سلمان رشدی به خاطر نوشتن یک کتاب باید بمیرد، دیگری برای کشتن بیست نفر آدم: از نظر سیاستمدار این دو فرقی ندارند، درحالیکه این دو اصلا ربطی به هم ندارند. اینها نباید برایمان عادی بشود، هرگز.
مکبث را لازم نیست خلاصه کنیم، چون به یک لحظهاش نیاز داریم: صدای نواختن بر در. مکبث که مرتکب قتل شده، وقتی صدای خواختن بر در را میشنود، قالب تهی میکند. «مکبثِ کاهوت» دربارهٔ تلاش شخصی به نام کاهوت (دوست چکی استوپارد (خود استوپارد هم متولد چک بود)) برای اجرای مکبث، هنرمندی ممنوعالکار که نمیتواند تئاتر را رها کند. استوپارد یک مچکات رؤیایی میآفرید: یکسانانگاری ترس از شنیدن صدای نواختن بر در، چه اگر مکبث قاتل باشی، چه اگر روشنفکری که دارد دور از چشم قانون در آپارتمانش برای عدهای مکبث را اجرا میکند.
به طور خلاصه: در جامعهای که همگان از پلیس میهراسند، یک جای کار میلنگد.
گرامیداشت همخوانان عزیز ^__^
July 21, 2025
هفتروز_هفتنمایشنامه
نمایشنامه اول
"Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth" by Tom Stoppard brings together two short plays that explore the crisis of language and the power of censorship in the modern world. In Dogg’s Hamlet, language no longer helps people understand each other, it becomes a barrier. In Cahoot’s Macbeth, performing a play turns into a bold political act under an oppressive regime. Through clever use of Shakespeare’s works, Stoppard shows that theatre is not just entertainment, it can be a powerful tool for resistance, truth, and freedom.
I think it would’ve been pretty hard to understand this play without reading the introduction and the afterword. Amirhossein’s explanations really helped me a lot, and I’m so glad he recommended it. I also loved that we got to read it together in our reading group, it turned out to be such an interesting experience.
Big thanks to all my fellow readers♡♡♡♡♡♡
نمایشنامه اول
"Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth" by Tom Stoppard brings together two short plays that explore the crisis of language and the power of censorship in the modern world. In Dogg’s Hamlet, language no longer helps people understand each other, it becomes a barrier. In Cahoot’s Macbeth, performing a play turns into a bold political act under an oppressive regime. Through clever use of Shakespeare’s works, Stoppard shows that theatre is not just entertainment, it can be a powerful tool for resistance, truth, and freedom.
I think it would’ve been pretty hard to understand this play without reading the introduction and the afterword. Amirhossein’s explanations really helped me a lot, and I’m so glad he recommended it. I also loved that we got to read it together in our reading group, it turned out to be such an interesting experience.
Big thanks to all my fellow readers♡♡♡♡♡♡
July 21, 2025
هفت روز- هفت نمایشنامه. نمایشنامهی اول
July 28, 2025
همخوانی هفت روز-هفت نمایشنامه / نمایشنامه اول
March 21, 2010
Dogg’s Hamlet: A group of school children prepare for an awards assembly and performance of an abridged Hamlet.
Cahoot’s Macbeth: Designed for private performance, written as a tribute to Pavel Kohout, banned theatre maker and vocal opponent of the oppressive Normalisation in 1970s Czechoslovakia.
If I may quote from the program notes by the director, Paul Knox.
The audience, thus, is part of an experiment, and, well….it felt like it. I still don’t altogether understand the idea of watching a terrible performance of an extremely abridged Hamlet. Oh sorry, I’m not allowed to call it ‘terrible’, I imagine. It was being acted by people pretending to be children. They were probably acting badly really, really well….But.
Cahoot’s Macbeth is brilliant and Dogg’s Hamlet is necessary to it, I might add. Unlike his Rock 'n' Roll A New Play, which deals with the same issues of popular culture in Czechoslovakia in this period of persecution, it manages to be both funny and chilling. (I mean this to be no criticism of Rock 'n' Roll.
The important reason for reading Fford’s The Eyre Affair is that it explains (in the funniest of ways) how marginalised culture is in our free, democratic society. It’s sort of like voting. We see our right to ignore it, rather than our duty to partake of it. When you watch Czechoslovakians fighting to the death for their rights to access popular culture, whether it be Shakespeare or pop music, it should shame all of us. Stoppard really gets this across. So whereas in general I find playwrights and novelists who get involved in political themes do so because they are dry of ideas, that they are filling up space because their story isn’t good enough to do it, Stoppard’s work doesn’t feel like that for one moment. You don’t come out thinking, God, another political message. You come out thrillingly charged and determined to live your soft, easy life in a better way.
Cahoot’s Macbeth: Designed for private performance, written as a tribute to Pavel Kohout, banned theatre maker and vocal opponent of the oppressive Normalisation in 1970s Czechoslovakia.
If I may quote from the program notes by the director, Paul Knox.
When Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Investigations was finally published in 1953 it was the culmination of a lifelong obsession with language – its origins, construction, logic and usage. In it he proposed a ‘language-game’ in which a builder calls for various pieces he needs to build a platform, say, planks, slabs, blocks and cubes. Wittgenstein proposed that the builder may use those words to call for specific items, but his helper, delivering the pieces, may understand plank to mean ‘ready’, slab to mean ‘ok’, block to mean ‘next’ and cube to mean ‘thank you’. To a neutral observer, so long as the right pieces are delivered, the language-game works regardless of whether they speak the same language or, in fact, ever truly understand each other. Language is, after all, based on a series of assumptions, inaccuracies and allowances we make for each other.
Inspired by this, Tom Stoppard creates Wittgenstein’s hypothetical language and gave it a name: Dogg. Written for the Dogg’s Troupe in 1971 and later revised to be performed with Cahoot’s Macbeth, Dogg’s Hamlet seeks to divorce words from actions and intention, revelling in misunderstanding and feeling out the boundaries of how useful language can really be. Stoppard writes that this is a ‘modest attempt’ to teach an audience the language in which the play is written; the combination of this with a condensed version of Hamlet presents an opportunity to discover how quickly they might be able to switch back to English for Shakespeare’s classic. It is my hope that after 15 minutes of Dogg, Elizabethan English verse will seem simple.
The audience, thus, is part of an experiment, and, well….it felt like it. I still don’t altogether understand the idea of watching a terrible performance of an extremely abridged Hamlet. Oh sorry, I’m not allowed to call it ‘terrible’, I imagine. It was being acted by people pretending to be children. They were probably acting badly really, really well….But.
Cahoot’s Macbeth is brilliant and Dogg’s Hamlet is necessary to it, I might add. Unlike his Rock 'n' Roll A New Play, which deals with the same issues of popular culture in Czechoslovakia in this period of persecution, it manages to be both funny and chilling. (I mean this to be no criticism of Rock 'n' Roll.
The important reason for reading Fford’s The Eyre Affair is that it explains (in the funniest of ways) how marginalised culture is in our free, democratic society. It’s sort of like voting. We see our right to ignore it, rather than our duty to partake of it. When you watch Czechoslovakians fighting to the death for their rights to access popular culture, whether it be Shakespeare or pop music, it should shame all of us. Stoppard really gets this across. So whereas in general I find playwrights and novelists who get involved in political themes do so because they are dry of ideas, that they are filling up space because their story isn’t good enough to do it, Stoppard’s work doesn’t feel like that for one moment. You don’t come out thinking, God, another political message. You come out thrillingly charged and determined to live your soft, easy life in a better way.
June 2, 2012
My daughter is performing in this at the moment. It is a fascinating play. The start is chaotic and if you don’t know enough of Hamlet it must seem like a whole series of in-jokes strung together, which, in a way, I guess it is. It is very amusing how Stoppard tells the story of Hamlet more or less from just the ‘best of’ quotes from the play.
The second half is a performance of Macbeth in Czechoslovakia post-1968. Chilling, terrifying and depressing as hell. But it does appeal to our sense that even in the dark of our darkest days great art (and Macbeth is probably one of the best of Shakespeare’s little efforts) somehow saves us, redeems us, displays our true humanity as the criterion upon which all else is to be judged. And as much as I would love to believe that was true – to believe great art is subversive and literally helps us make sense of the world - I fear that the power of art is deadened by the endless, moronic, anxiety inducing shite we are bombarded with daily. I mean everything from reality television to Mormon vegetarian vampires. Look, that said, and given the choice, I would pick the lobotomy over a jackboot to the face for all eternity every time, yeah, I really would. Ah well, at least in the West the lobotomies aren’t compulsory. At least, not yet. Long live Good Reads!
The second half is a performance of Macbeth in Czechoslovakia post-1968. Chilling, terrifying and depressing as hell. But it does appeal to our sense that even in the dark of our darkest days great art (and Macbeth is probably one of the best of Shakespeare’s little efforts) somehow saves us, redeems us, displays our true humanity as the criterion upon which all else is to be judged. And as much as I would love to believe that was true – to believe great art is subversive and literally helps us make sense of the world - I fear that the power of art is deadened by the endless, moronic, anxiety inducing shite we are bombarded with daily. I mean everything from reality television to Mormon vegetarian vampires. Look, that said, and given the choice, I would pick the lobotomy over a jackboot to the face for all eternity every time, yeah, I really would. Ah well, at least in the West the lobotomies aren’t compulsory. At least, not yet. Long live Good Reads!
August 29, 2011
Wonderfully clever and funny stuff. Dazzling
October 25, 2024
مقاله و شرح اولیه در فهم مطلب بسیار موثر بودند.بیشتر از یک نمایشنامه رساله ای فلسفی زیانی بود در قالب نمایشنامه
September 11, 2008
I thought I knew this (these?) play(s), but having now read them, I realize that I've only seen a popular cutting from the Dogg's Hamlet section.
This play (actually two one acts, but they really do rely on one another to create a full play) is really rather unique and complicated. It is both hysterically funny and frighteningly intense. It is witty and clever, it incorporates two great Shakespeare plays quite well.
Of course I laughed through the beginning section of Dogg's Hamlet, but I didn't quite 'get' the transition to the Hamlet rehearsal/performance.
The "Cahoot" section was intriquingly intense, which let's up with the return of a "Dogg's" character.
I give this only three stars because, as literature to read, it is difficult and perhaps confusing. As theatre, this could be a really fun production in the hands of a director who has really explored it. I'd love to see this staged, fully.
This play (actually two one acts, but they really do rely on one another to create a full play) is really rather unique and complicated. It is both hysterically funny and frighteningly intense. It is witty and clever, it incorporates two great Shakespeare plays quite well.
Of course I laughed through the beginning section of Dogg's Hamlet, but I didn't quite 'get' the transition to the Hamlet rehearsal/performance.
The "Cahoot" section was intriquingly intense, which let's up with the return of a "Dogg's" character.
I give this only three stars because, as literature to read, it is difficult and perhaps confusing. As theatre, this could be a really fun production in the hands of a director who has really explored it. I'd love to see this staged, fully.
December 27, 2018
یک نمایشنامه ی تجربی جذاب ... در واقع دو نمایشنامه ی به هم پیوسته ... هملت داگ در واقع اشاره میکند به اقتباسی از هملت که به نویسنده ای به نام داگ تعلق دارد و همینطور مکبثی که به نویسنده ی چک تبار به نام کاهوت تقدیم شده است . دو نمایشنامه همچون نمایشنامه ی شش شخصیت در جستجوی نویسنده به دنیای درونی تئاتر اشاره میکند و اینکه چطور تئاتر میتواند خودش را بر دنیای واقعی تحمیل کند . همچنین تام استوپارد در این دو نمایش دست به خلق زبانی قراردادی برای شخصیت ها میکند ... در واقع نمایش در دنیایی میگذرد که اشخاص زبانی متفاوت دارند و با زبان خودشان در حال تمرین نسخه ای کوتاه شده از هملت هستند . در نمایشنامه دوم نیز آاشخاص در حال اجرای مکبث میباشند . در واقع این دو نمایش به چالشهای زبانی تئاتر و اساسا قرارداد های خود تئاتر نیز اشاره میکند . همچنین در مورد این ایده که چگونه زبان تئاتری قدرت مقابله با زبان سیاست را دارد حرف میزند
November 5, 2017
Dogg's Hamlet was based on the mildly amusing idea to render Wittgenstein for the stage. TS really should have known better.
Couhoot's Macbeth - Back on this 90s a rather weak production called 'The Complete Works of Shakespeare' somehow made it to the West End. At first, I thought ST was pursuing something along the same lines. But really, this reads more like an early draft for 'Every Good Boy Deserves Favour'.
It's not fair to hold TS to task because this hasn't aged well. But it plainly wasn't well conceived in the first place.
Couhoot's Macbeth - Back on this 90s a rather weak production called 'The Complete Works of Shakespeare' somehow made it to the West End. At first, I thought ST was pursuing something along the same lines. But really, this reads more like an early draft for 'Every Good Boy Deserves Favour'.
It's not fair to hold TS to task because this hasn't aged well. But it plainly wasn't well conceived in the first place.
Read
December 2, 2018Tom Stoppard loves Hamlet. I get it. He also likes Macbeth. I get that.
Its clever how his personal adoration of the two plays makes way into his own writing - almost fan fiction like and gives a new shade to the originals. The structure works well with the manic production of characters and in this chaos, there is humor and breathless laughter.
Its clever how his personal adoration of the two plays makes way into his own writing - almost fan fiction like and gives a new shade to the originals. The structure works well with the manic production of characters and in this chaos, there is humor and breathless laughter.
January 10, 2025
ok maya molina i'll do chad deity if we can do this next >:)
January 12, 2012
I just finished reading two short plays by Tom Stoppard called "Dogg's Hamlet" and "Cahoot's Macbeth" from his collection titled The Real Inspector Hound and Other Plays. These two plays are slightly eccentric as they interrupt the accepted stories of William Shakespeare with a confusing language of their own called "Dogg". As this play, explained by the author, was written and dedicated to the Czechoslovakian playwright Pavel Kohout. Stoppard explains that "[d]uring the last decade of 'normalization' which followed the fall of Dubcek, thousands of Czechoslovaks have been prevented from pursuing their career" (Stoppard 142). Basically, Stoppard wrote this as a type of rebellion in the current time of Kohout.
Read the rest of my review at: http://www.bookaddict24-7.tumblr.com
Read the rest of my review at: http://www.bookaddict24-7.tumblr.com
September 13, 2011
In this. Suddenly I have a much stronger grasp of Czech Republic history in the 70s than I did before. Now I know all about Charter 77 and the Velvet Revolution and Plastic People of the Universe. OK, not all about these things, but definitely a start. And everyone should speak Dogg. This is my love for these plays is the language, Dogg. I have always had such a fondness for Dadaist leanings and an entirely created language out of words in English that mean things to us in a different context is just beautiful. Bicycles! We also had our first read through of the MacBeth piece in an abandoned office building during a hurricane, so I think that bodes pretty well.
November 18, 2011
So we recently did this play at the high school. It features around a teacher named Dogg, his students named Charlie, Baker and Abel, and Easy, the everyday block deliverer. The play itself is funny, clever, witty, and an all around fun. Did I mention they don't speak English, but instead Doog?
Oh, nod to those in the play, don't be fooled by the script. The words you have to learn isn't the part that'll trip you up. It's that damned wall!
Oh, nod to those in the play, don't be fooled by the script. The words you have to learn isn't the part that'll trip you up. It's that damned wall!
February 17, 2012
With Dogg's Hamlet Stoppard has taken an argument by one of the greatest incomprehensible philosophers and made it digestable. I first encountered Stoppard's work in high school and it made Shakespear both interesting andentertaining, the same thing happens again. Make sure to read the introductions - I normally skip over them but these are enlightening.
July 8, 2014
Written as only Stoppard can, this play must be scene to be appreciated fully I have no doubt. Nevertheless, reading it was deeply enjoyable as Stoppard used his wonderful grasp of words and theatre to create a surprising and humorous narrative.
So, if you like Stoppard this is definitely for you. If you are not sure, it might be a bit much.
So, if you like Stoppard this is definitely for you. If you are not sure, it might be a bit much.
April 2, 2016
Dogg's Hamlet was brilliant, I think, but I'd need to see it done as a play to understand it, or just not be a lazy reader, perhaps. The concept of teaching a language to the audience (essentially) is delightful and done well. The Cahoot's Macbeth was probably brilliant but I couldn't really get into it, probably because I don't have a degree in Shakespeare.
March 5, 2009
Dogg's Hamlet is one of my all time favorite plays by one of my all time favorite playwrights. Breakfast Breakfast Sun Dock Trog!
February 25, 2013
Hilarious, ingenious, witty!
January 24, 2014
Probably fun to watch. Not at all fun to read.
October 10, 2010
I love Tom Stoppard.
July 21, 2015
See my review of the larger Stoppard collection, 'Plays 1'.
August 31, 2019
At what point does experimentation slip into arbitrariness? Wherever that is, precisely, it’s where I sign off. I’ve read enough Stoppard that I expect to ask myself at some point during a play whether his, can I just say it?, postmodern practice dispenses with the semblance of decision-making, and the scales were tipped somewhat unfavorably for this pair, especially Dogg’s Hamlet between the two of them. Easy was the glue that held things together for me, even more so than Shakespeare, insofar as the blitz theatricals seemed rather grafted onto also discontinuous narratives. Sometimes Stoppard’s choices don’t really justify themselves as other than apparently “good things to do at the time.” Yes, yes, they’re cute and clever, and I value being made to think, but I might get a birdhouse if I can’t tell whether I’m building a desk or a chair – at least give me an outline, and I’ll do the rest. If Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and Arcadia hadn’t hooked me first (and forever), I doubt I’d stay so attached.
P.S. Thank you, Goodreads, for pointing me here after Wittgenstein, though!
P.S. Thank you, Goodreads, for pointing me here after Wittgenstein, though!
October 16, 2017
During a puzzle hunt recently, my team was directed to this page: http://the-toast.net/2015/11/30/how-t...
It's pretty funny.
Anyway, I did like it! It was witty and an interesting creation/addition to theater. I certainly appreciated it all the more, knowing both Hamlet and Macbeth more than passing well.
But as a book? ...this is, I must admit, not meant to be read. The beginning section is altogether too confusing (the discrepancy between what is said and meant), and the effect was probably completely lost on me without the introduction, and even then I wish I had seen and heard it instead of reading it.
The second "act" (Cahoot's Macbeth) is a...foil, and without the negative/less important connotation of the word. A sharp juxtaposition, though some elements are left invariant. The story of no longer a lighthearted gibberish society, but that of a time when it is not allowed to be an actor, or play plays.
A work I would be interested in seeing in person.
It's pretty funny.
Anyway, I did like it! It was witty and an interesting creation/addition to theater. I certainly appreciated it all the more, knowing both Hamlet and Macbeth more than passing well.
But as a book? ...this is, I must admit, not meant to be read. The beginning section is altogether too confusing (the discrepancy between what is said and meant), and the effect was probably completely lost on me without the introduction, and even then I wish I had seen and heard it instead of reading it.
The second "act" (Cahoot's Macbeth) is a...foil, and without the negative/less important connotation of the word. A sharp juxtaposition, though some elements are left invariant. The story of no longer a lighthearted gibberish society, but that of a time when it is not allowed to be an actor, or play plays.
A work I would be interested in seeing in person.
November 2, 2018
I wasn't sure what the two plays were trying to say until the final part of Macbeth, when it became apparent that the invocation was that to continue producing art in times of censorship, speaking in a unfamiliar language to the authorities might be a way out. Of course not literally a different language given that everything can be translated, but an internal language, something that only the people who you want to understand the art will understand. And zat's it.
March 21, 2020
"Yes, one of them can read and the other one can write. That's why we go around in threes -- I have to keep an eye on those bloody intellectuals."
I was reading Dogg's Hamlet and I was like, okay, I like this -- basically 15 Minute Hamlet but odder. But then Cahoot's Macbeth came along an Oh Boy did that get me. Marvellous commentary!
I was reading Dogg's Hamlet and I was like, okay, I like this -- basically 15 Minute Hamlet but odder. But then Cahoot's Macbeth came along an Oh Boy did that get me. Marvellous commentary!
February 15, 2019
Absolutely marmalade!
Slack/slack!
Slack/slack!
November 19, 2019
This would be more fun to see than it is to read.
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