In the theatre building, there is always a stage where the actors act for their play and the audience seats. The audiences come to the theater to watch a drama performed by the actors. However, in the short play entitled “The Real Inspector Hound” written by Tom Stoppard between 1961 and 1962, this idea seems to be blurred. This detective-story play brings new idea so that the audiences are able to cross from their seat to the stage, and vice versa. Thus, the elaboration of the notion of “doubleness” will be presented on this paper.

The stage direction itself firstly attempts to bring the audience join with the play by trying to reflect the audiences’ image to themselves by using a huge mirror. The audience then can see their own reflection on the stage, so instead of watching the performer’s acting, they can see both the acting of the performer and their reflection. In a sense, their reflection becomes one of the stage decoration which provided by the audience. The gap between the performance and the audience is diminished. In the major number of plays, the audience “shall” watch the actor and the stage property. But in this play, the audience becomes one of the play’s properties. Although this attempt is impossible to be done, but still the stage direction says that the huge mirror is needed to be revealed, because it is mentioned on the first line of the play.

The audience seats at last become one of the play properties where the character of two critics named Moon and Birdboot starts their acting. The presence of the two characters who sit in the audience seat and the presence of acting area which is decorated in the style of “drawing-room of Muldoon Manor” enable an enigmatic question of where the border between the audience area and the stage area is. The play shows that Moon and Birdboot, who also actors in this play, can view the play also. Moon is characterized as a critic who occasionally uses metaphor or other figurative languages in his critique like when he describes about the absence of Higgs, he said “[m]y presence defines his absence, his absence confirms my presence, his presence preludes mine…” (Stoppard 2787), while Birdboot is characterized as a womanizer who although he has a wife, he later is interested with one of the actresses on the play.

BIRDBOOT: Underneath?! It’s a whodunit, man! – Look at it!
[They look at it. The room. The BODY. Silence]
Has it started yet?
MOON: Yes.
[Pause. They look at it.]
BIRDBOOT: Are you sure?
MOON: It’s a pause. (Stoppard 2788)

The theatre critics recognize the play which at the moment is in the pause state. Furthermore, as theatre critics, they criticize the play. In this session, there is a clear boundary between the critics and the acting area, because there are audiences who watch the stage and there is a stage to be watched by the audience. By criticizing the play, the critics claim the authority of all circumstance of the play, both the audience area and the acting area. So, this play has two stages, the audience seat and the usual acting area. However, the relationship between the two stages is not parallel at this moment. The acting area is framed by the audience area’s acting which is now held by the critics.

The first layer of the framed play contains the “real” life of the critics, including the friendship relation between Moon and Birdboot and the marriage life of Birdboot and Myrtle. The first layer tells the story that there are two critics watching a play which is set in the drawing-room of Muldoon Manor while the second layer tells what is happened in Muldoonn Manor. This layer also includes the conversation between Moon and Birdboot which sometime formed as a critique. For example, the two critics give a critic voice about who the real madman is:

BIRDBOOT: Simon Gascoyne. It’s not him, of course.
MOON: What?
BIRDBOOT: I said it is not him.
MOON: Who is, then?
BIRDBOOT: My guess is Magnus.
MOON: In disguise, you mean? (Stoppard 2793)

Moreover, the second layer is firstly initiated by the appearance of Mrs. Drudge who worked as a house cleaner in Muldoon Manor. The second layer story begins by the announcement from a radio that there is a madman escaped and at the moment he starts his runaway to Essex, the place where the Muldon Manor is. This problem emerges the plot of the second layer. Although firstly the problem comes into being by the appearance of Higgs’ body at the acting stage, the body remains undiscovered until the middle of the plot so that it does not ignite the problem of the story.

The relation between the first layer and the second layer is built from several aspects. Firstly, it comes into existence by the comments of the critics. The audience space is trespassed by the view of the critics toward the performance which is performed at the acting area. The critique signifies that the audience is related with the acting area via the view of the critics. Secondly, it emerges by the conversation turn-taking between the first layer and the second layer.

MOON: I say, Birdboot…
BIRDBOOT: That’s the one.
FELICITY: [Catching sight of SIMON.] You!
[FELICITY’s manner at the moment is one of great surprise but some pleasure.]
SIMON: [Nervously.] Er, yes – hello again.
FELICITY: What are you doing here?
SIMON: Well, I …
MOON: She’s –
BIRDBOOT: Sssh …
SIMON: No doubt you’re surprised to see me. (Stoppard 2794)

The turn-taking seems to happen simultaneously. In the example above, the turn to speak between the actor of the first layer and the second layer occurs like they are on the same stage. Instead, there is a distance between them because they are separated as an actor who acts in the acting area and the critic who acts in the audience seat. In addition, the most remarkable crossing of the two layers occurs when the critics who formerly sit on the audience seat jump up to the stage.

It is firstly initiated by the impatience of Moon who hears the phone ringing on the empty stage. The phone call is actually for Birdboot, so then he gives it away. When he is on the phone call, suddenly Felicity gets into the stage and the plot of the acting area is moving again within Birdboot as one of the actors. However, the play is actually not moving from the earlier scene, but repeated from the first time Felicity gets into the drawing-room. In this occasion, Birdboot is acting as a Simon, because the former Simon is murdered.

There are some similarities between Simon and Birdboot. Simon loves Felicity and makes an illicit affair with Felicity, and Birdboot as well. Birdboot has been interested in Felicity from the first time Felicity starts his acting. When he has a chance to meet Felicity at the play, like Simon do, he makes an illicit affair with Felicity whereas he has a wife. Thus, the “real life” of Birdboot is taken along to the second layer of the play which is merely a fiction. Although actually the first layer is also a fiction, the first layer brings more reality features because it gives an example of a real marriage life between Birdboot and Myrtle and the situation of criticizing a said play. However, the shift of the role between the audience and the actor is happened unconsciously by Birdboot. When Birdboot is “turning [himself] into a complete farce” (Stoppard 2811), Moon becomes panic because he cannot stop Birdboot to act, because he sees that Birdboot doesn’t realize that he transforms himself from the audience to the actor.

Moreover, the double role of Birdboot which in one time he is a critic and in another time he becomes an actor is also occurred by Moon. When Birdboot dies, unconsciously he gets into the stage and suddenly runs to Birdboot’s body. He then becomes the substitution of Inspector Hound. Cynthia calls him Inspector Hound and surprisingly he answers it. After that, the play goes on with Moon presented as Hound.

Conversely, Simon and Hound, who formerly they are the actors of the play, occupy the critics’ seat. The role of Moon-Birdboot and Simon-Hound is turned around. Simon and Hound become critics while Moon and Birdboot become actors. This exchange signifies the doubleness idea in this play, particularly in a role of the actors.

To conclude, the play brings the idea of doubleness by presenting the shifted role between the actors and the audience from different place: the audience area and the acting area. The audience, in some parts, is brought to the stage as a property and as an actor. Also, the double is come into being by the looping of the plot. The plot is moving twice in some scenes of the play, so that it is repeated and occurred doubly.

Works Cited

Stoppard, Tom. “The Real Inspector Hound.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M. H. Abrams. Seventh Edition. Vol. II. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2000. 2787-2815.