Status Updates From Tom Stoppard Plays 1: The R...

What may have been a silly French farce for its time, a handful of Members of Parliament who all have the hots for the same scantily-clad clerk post-swinging sixties, has now become a perennial scandal for elected officials in our nosy era of social media. Strange that this political parody was interrupted by another play rhapsodizing the American landscape, but at least now I know what to look at for seeing Big Ben.

The first two plays are closely connected as silly inspectors attempt to solve an inconsequential crime, but re-reading them shows a very British contrast. Hound is all about the elegance of a country estate while Margritte is the council housing version that’s crude and xenophobic. So witty suave England as they imagine themselves on stage and the tawdry nation that they are and always have been.