These effects allow Stoppard to introduce the comical character of Mrs Drudge with far greater effect than would have been possible had Stoppard simply introduced her from the start. Stoppard even manages to increase this sense of pantomime with a cheap joke with Birdboot. As Mrs Drudge prepares to enter, Birdboot, predictably, begins to go on about the girl he took out and asks Moon to observe her as she enters When Mrs Drudge does enter, the audience are feeling very pleased with themselves at having sussed out this play, totally drawn into the spectacular double bluff Stoppard has woven around them.
The next set of opposites Stoppard introduces to the play are Lady Cynthia and Felicity, first, Stoppard introduces Felicity, in Felicity is yet another stereotypical perception, her first word in the play is “out” probably pronounced in a shrill girlish cry, this automatically indulges the audience into their own perception of Felicity, even before she enters, as she does enter, the audience are once more feeling happy with themselves, they all guessed the obvious, Felicity is about twenty, wearing a tennis outfit, probably blond. When she does notice Simon, who is standing in the doorway, she doesn’t say something totally reasonable, like “what the hell are you doing here?” she titters, “you”, or more likely, considering her stereotypical perfection so far, “hyou” She continues to build up her two dimensional character whilst the audience subconsciously wait for her opposite to appear. By the time Cynthia does appear, Felicity has created another two dimensional and totally predictable show of character, she has ad a girlish go at Simon, and most importantly, shouted out her intention to kill Simon Gascoyne. At which point, Mrs Drudge passes by the window, this of course is really entertaining the audience, by now they are getting into a cheap murder mystery and wondering whether to shout boo every time Simon comes into the play. When Cynthia breaks onto the stage she is predictably the opposite of Felicity, she speaks more slowly and is older and more of a woman, less of a girl.
At this point Moon and Birdboot are showing deeper areas character, Moon is impartial to the play and is taking it out of Birdboot now he has realised Felicity is the girl Birdboot went out with the night before. Birdboot denies this and introduces his wife, says how he would never give her up and instantly a while new dimension is added to Birdboot, even though, for the moment, Moon remains as two dimensional as ever. Birdboot is cheating on his wife and also has a wife; this proves one thing to the audience. Birdboot has a third dimension, a life out of this cheap murder mystery, and this removes a large part of the pantomime effect, which Stoppard no longer needs, it also separates the two worlds of the critics and the play, this is very important because for Stoppard to bring them together, first he must separate them. It also stops the audience becoming too infuriated by the cheap murder mystery.
When Felicity leaves Simon alone with Cynthia, another opposite between Cynthia and Felicity is shown. Whereas Simon had an argument with Felicity, Cynthia embraces him and kisses him, the two actions being of course opposites. With these stereotypical characters Stoppard has extended the contrast to actions. Of course after this embrace, Stoppard explains nothing and enters instead Magnus, Simon’s opposite. Magnus comes hurtling downstairs and crashes into Simon in his wheelchair. The audience probably find this intensely amusing because they have been building up an intense hate of the stupid predictable Simon because f his success with Cynthia and Felicity. They also, if they haven’t taken in the more obvious evidence, note the fact that Magnus and Simon are obviously opposites. The more obvious evidence is that Simon is wearing a posh suit, is cool as an Eskimo, speaks with a “decent” English accent and has considerable success with his female stereotype counterparts. Magnus is older, in a wheelchair and wear blankets; he speaks in an American accent and is a psychopath. The contrast should be obvious to the whole audience; it is not of course to the critics. This could be explained by severe stupidity, or another stereotypical taunt at critics in general, but Stoppard does give an explanation. The critics no longer care. By this time, Birdboot is becoming obsessed with Cynthia and Moon is drowning in his thoughts. Both of these actions are the beginning of the mix of the critic’s world and the play, although at this point only Birdboot’s obsession shows.
When the characters begin to play cards, the contrast is once again shown. Magnus partners Felicity and Cynthia partners Simon, what is notable about this is that the opposites avoid joining with each other. Just before they do begin to play cards, Magnus begins to speak to Cynthia; the conversation is a polar to the conversation engaged moments before between Simon and Cynthia. Magnus begins by objecting to the partnership between Simon and Cynthia, Cynthia replies with a simple “what do you mean?” and the audience have already guessed the rest of the conversation. Cynthia uses the same excuse she used on Simon, but this time with rather more meaning, the audience now know that Cynthia dislikes Magnus and likes Simon, they also know that her loyalty to Albert is selective and depends on whether she is talking to Simon or Magnus. To keep the trend going Magnus ends the conversation with a death threat. Whilst all this is going on Simon and Felicity have moved the Chaise long revealing the corpse again, the audience will be most likely drawn to this because the conversation is boring, they will also be thinking that the conversation is a futile attempt to move the chaise long without attracting their attention. The audience will then be feeling smart because they noticed it. The effect of the conversation is quite the opposite; its boringness draws the audience to the corpse, the conversation therefore provides two major effects. The chaise-long has been moved, the audience know, but, most importantly, they think that the director doesn’t know that they know. This dramatically increases the desired stupidity of the murder mystery.
Following the conversation, Birdboot decides that Simon is “in for the chop all right”, this is all he says and the distinct lack of reply from Moon shows a new turn in the play. Both the two critics have now entirely left the two dimensional stage, Birdboot is thinking about his marriage, he evens begins to plot to leave it for Cynthia, Moon is also becoming more real but keeping to the theme of opposites, he wishes to replace Higgs, not join like Birdboot. At this point the characters start playing cards. The card game is incredibly and deliberately artificial. The characters make individual comments that are stupidly unreal stating far too much. When Simon addresses Magnus he says “So you’re the crippled half-brother of Lord Muldoon who turned up out of the blue from Canada just the other day, are you”, this question is absurdly stupid because Simon knows so much about him he has little need to ask him about it, he probably knows more about Magnus than Magnus does himself. The audience acknowledge this and decide it is just another stupid comment in this play; they will even be beginning to get bored of the play and focus more on the actions of the critics. The critics being far less predictable and far more real than the play.
Now that all the opposites have been defined, Stoppard begins to mess around with the minds of the audience. The death of the murder mystery as a separate play is marked when the phone rings on stage. Moon becomes agitated as it continues to ring and eventually goes to answer it, he picks up the phone and the audience suddenly being to wonder what he is doing, the question going through their heads is what the hell is he doing. When he calls to Birdboot to come get the phone, the audience forget their previous question, and question what the hell Myrtle is doing ringing a stage phone. They are confused as this thought brings them back to the reality or not question and they begin to wonder whether the phone is real, or whether the stage is real, or whether myrtle is real. Such is the effect of the cheap predictable play that when the unpredictable comes along the audience are flummoxed. They have come to believe that the murder mystery is the play, and that the critics are just an extra, like commentators at a football match, they believe the critics are more real than the play and watched their antics amused, but they have not yet come to realise their link with the murder mystery. This total distraction allows Stoppard to meld together Birdboot and the play without the audience realising. When the scene restarts the audience may even be too amazed at the sudden presence of Birdboot to realise that the scene is identical to the starting scene. The scene continues exactly as before and the audience, who have now come to their senses, wonder what the hell is happening. They begin to scoff at it again, to hide their misunderstanding from themselves, saying they have seen it before. Some may believe that the actors have got it wrong, and this view is supported by the stupidity that Stoppard has imposed on the actors. As Moon calls back to Birdboot, insulting him “have you taken leave of your tiny mind”, the audience begin to believe that the actors have got it wrong. Why, otherwise, would Moon be shouting across the stage?
Eventually the scene ends, Moon talks to Birdboot, and Birdboot begins to pace neurotically up and down the stage. He, predictable, comes across the corpse. He points out that it is Higgs, this is unpredictable, and catches the audience by surprise, what is Higgs doing there? They think, they begin to wonder whether it was Moon. Moon begins to believe he did himself, and then Birdboot is shot. He comes onto the stage and once again, the plays have merged whilst the audience were off their guard. Moon takes the role of Hound. At this point Hound and Simon occupy the Critics seats, the plays are now almost totally merged. The play is ready, Magnus unveils himself in all his glory, he is the real inspector Hound, Albert, and most importantly Puckeridge. Only Moon and the audience know, and seeing as Magnus had successfully framed Moon for the murder, going so far as to convince Moon himself of Moon’s guilt. He shoots Moon takes Cynthia, and presumable lives happily and evilly ever after. The actors are totally flummoxed and their two dimensions are suddenly apparent. Now the audience are in the know, and the actors are ignorant. The audience want to scream at them. The contrasts at this point no longer matter, they have been Broken, and this break subconsciously makes the audience realise it is the end of the play.