Tom Stoppard's comedy of ideas: An examination of themes and techniques

Abstract

This thesis examines Tom Stoppard's comedy of ideas. A study of the relationship between form and content, comedy and ideas, will demonstrate how the playwright draws attention to the nature of the play as a theatrical event and relies upon the audience's recognition of theatrical conventions and devices. Upon this basis of familiar theatrical conventions Stoppard establishes various layers of dramatic dialogue - between playwright and audience, audience and play, play and argument - employing the comedy on the surface as a means of involving the audience in the underlying dialectic. I will look at the early radio and television plays and at Stoppard's only novel where these contribute to the examination of themes and techniques in Stoppard's comedy of ideas. I will note a change of direction, a change of perspective in Stoppard's comedy of ideas after Travesties and show how the later stage plays and the television play Professional Foul succeed in developing the playwright's comedy of ideas in con-junction with his change of direction. Stoppard's adaptations of Mrozek, Lorca, Sclinitzler and Molnar lie beyond the scope of this study; although Stoppard's voice is clearly discernible in these adaptations, the plays essentially involve the re-working of another dramatist's plots and themes and therefore do not warrant inclusion in a study of Stoppard's comedy of ideas.