Tom Stoppard's play The Real Inspector Hound - Plot and subplot

Plot and subplot

The play opens with two critics called “Moon” and “Birdboot”. We can see a dead body on the main stage. Moon and Birdboot are having a conversation about another Critic called “Higgs”, and how “Moon” is the stand in for Higgs and is never taken seriously. Also they are talking about how “Birdboot” has taken one of the actresses out the night before the date and how “Birdboot” is getting at angry at “Moon” as he has a wife and he wouldn’t possibly do anything to in danger that marriage he is obviously lying, or bending the truth.

Then A Character called Mrs Drudge who is the “Helper” at the Manor. At first she is just cleaning around the stage and she does notice the dead body behind the chaise longue. Whilst cleaning she moves the Chaise longue so that they dead body can no longer be seen. Then she heads straight for the radio and turns it on just in time to hear a “special police message.” Within in that we find out that there is a madman on the run in Essex near where Muldoon Manor is. Within in the message a strange man who is acting very suspiciously and matching the description of the madman on the Radio. He also doesn’t see the dead body. He leaves the room without Mrs Drudge ever knowing that he was there.

Then we return to “Moon” and “Birdboot” who carries on the conversation that “Birdboot” is an adulteress and is having “a romance” by the women actresses in many of the plays he goes to watch.

Mrs Drudge re –enters and she is standing over the phone and then conveniently the phone rings and she automatically picks it up. Then within in the telephone call she gives away where the characters are within the play, another one of the characters “Lady Muldoon” who is the owner of “Muldoon Manor”. She also mentions in the phone call that Lord Muldoon’s’ (who has been missing for 10 years) “wheelchair bound half brother Magnus.”

Then the suspicious man re appears this time though Mrs Drudge does see him. At first she is startled. He introduces himself as “Simon Gascoyne”. They start talking about how isolated and how the harsh weather conditions make the manor impossible to access. Also that he is a friend of “Lady Muldoon’s” as they met thorough a “mutual friend” “Felicity Cunningham” who Mrs Drudge says is also at the manor and at that time they are playing tennis.

Moon and Birdboot then come back into the play for a small amount of time and they talk about what they think of the characters that they have seen and who they think is the killer/madman. Also Moon starts talking about Higgs and Moons stand in Puckeridge and how Puckeridge must feel being a stand ins, stand in. They then move on to the play and Moon expresses his opinion of the play so far. Whilst this is happening Simon is still on stage who in the midst of Birdboot and Moon talking turns on the radio and a ...

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Then we hear a young female’s voice and it is Felicity. We see a yellow tennis ball roll into the room where Simon is standing and Felicity enters. She immediately recognizes Simon and at first is happy to see him but then she is angry as he says that he loves someone else and not her. She gets very angry and before she leaves and just as Mrs Drudge enters she says: “I’ll kill you for this, Simon Gascoyne.”

You get a very short argument between Moon and Birdboot about the fact that Moon saw Birdboot out with the character Felicity the night before.

We then have a conversation between Mrs Drudge and Simon. Where Simon is about to leave when Mrs Drudge says that Cynthia (Lady Muldoon) is looking forward to seeing Simon which persuades him to stay.

We then get Moon and Birdboot back and they carry on talking about the fact that felicity was the one who Birdboot was out with then suddenly Cynthia runs on to the stage and Moon and Birdboot are amazed by her elegance and Birdboot falls in love with her. He is desperate to know who she is.

Cynthia enters and she and Simon passionately embrace and then she pulls away. There is a slight atmosphere when Cynthia says that it is wrong what she and Simon are doing when she is married to her husband Albert even though he has been missing for 10 years. Simon then kisses her passionately once more and she pulls away just as Mrs Drudge re –enters the room. Cynthia asks Mrs Drudge to go and get Magnus and Felicity so they can play cards. However, there was no need to go and get Magnus as you can here the crashing noise of a wheelchair falling down a flight of stairs.

Magnus flies into the room at a high speed and knocks Simon over which he is very happy that he did so. Cynthia is worried but Simon is fine. Magnus initially is polite towards Simon. Felicity then enters and she and Simon move the chaise longue and in doing so the dead body is re-revealed. It is when they decide what teams they are going to be when playing cards that starts Magnus to be getting jealous of Simon and his tone becomes more hateful towards Simon. At the end of the cards when Cynthia says: No! Simon, your luck’s in tonight. Then Felicity replies by saying: “We shall see – the night is no over yet, Simon Gascoyne. Then Felicity leaves, leaving Magnus, Cynthia and Simon. Magnus is rejected my Cynthia as She wants to talk to Simon. So then Magnus leaves also threatening Simon.

They start talking about how Cynthia thinks that Felicity knows something about them. Then she starts questioning him on him and Felicity. She also threatens him before leaving by saying the same thing as Felicity when she first saw Simon “I will kill you, Simon Gascoyne.” This ends the scene on the main stage and we are left with Moon and Birdboot.

Moon and Birdboot then seem to be in a world of their own and talking separate conversations and sometimes involving themselves in each others conversations. Then for a moment they actually talk about the play and their opinions of its progression. They end up arguing about their differing opinions though.

The start of act 2 opens with a telephone ringing on the lights being brought on to reveal Cynthia, Magnus and Felicity. Cynthia and Felicity are sat on the chaise-longue and Magnus is in his wheelchair is at the table in the same place as before. Mrs Drudge offers them all coffee, sugar and biscuits. Then Mrs Drudge leaves them.

Then Felicity spontaneously turns on the radio once again exactly when another police message is starting. Within the message it says that the search for the madman is now in the “immediate facility of Muldoon manor”. This makes Cynthia and Felicity very worried and Magnus is quite confused. Cynthia notices that Simon is missing and that no one has seen him they start to panic. Then they hear a strange howling noise and then its repeated. Mrs Drudge then enters and Introduces Inspector Hound.

Hound seems to calm them down slightly. They are slightly confused initially because no one had actually rung the police even though Inspector said that someone rang the police. Hound is about to leave when Cynthia says “I hope you find him”. He quickly turns around and asks Cynthia means. Then when Hound asks them if they have met a young man recently who just appeared. After some time Felicity tells Hound that they have. This person being Simon.

Hound believes that one of the people in the manor is the target of the madman. Hound then discovers the corpse behind the chaise-longue. He believes that the dead body is her husbands, as he believes that Simon Gascoyne is her husband. She explains it though. Neither Cynthia, Felicity nor Magnus recognised the body.

Inspector hound then tells them that he thinks that one of them is the next target on the madman’s/killers list. He also believes that one of them is the murderer and that they are somewhere in the house if not in the room. They all separate with haste from one another leaving an empty stage.

Simon then walks onto the stage through the French windows. He shouts to see if there is anyone there. He notices the corpse and is surprised by it and goes over to it. He turns it over and looks shocked and surprised.

Birdboot interrupts here and says: “This is where Simon gets the chop” Simon is then shot. Birdboot then says: There you are.

Hound and Cynthia enter on the stage. They crouch over his body. Cynthia wonders what has happened and Hound tells her that Simon is dead. Then the lights blackout on the main stage leaving Moon and Birdboot lit.

Moon and Birdboot once again are having separate conversations to one another none of them about the play itself. Moon is talking about Puckeridge and Birdboot is talking about how the actress that play Cynthia needs a man like him in her life. Birdboot finally stops the conversation and talks about the play so far. Then Moon does the same and is more detailed then Birdboot seems to conclude what has happened in the play so far.

The phone starts ringing on stage frustrated by it’s consistents Moon picks it up. It is Birdboot’s wife. Whilst Birdboot is still on stage the lights come up on stage. As before a tennis ball bounces through the window and Felicity runs through the French windows and is confronted by Felicity. Felicity repeats the same lines as she did when she saw Simon for the first time. Then she leaves as before saying: “I’ll kill you for this Simon Gascoyne”. So Birdboot has been intergraded into the play.

Then Once again you have the same conversation between Birdboot and Mrs Drudge as was had between Simon and Mrs Drudge before. Then Cynthia enters and it is the same thing as with Felicity and Mrs Drudge.

As before Mrs Drudge enters as they are in an embrace. Moon tries to talk to Birdboot asking him: “Have you taken leave of your tiny little mind.” He replies by telling him that he should stay out of it.

Once again Magnus comes flying down the stairs and bowels over Birdboot. The next lines are repeats of the lines that we had between Simon except now its Birdboot who is getting confused. The same happens when they are all playing cards and when they all leave. As the curtain closes Moon shouts at Birdboot, Birdboot stops. Moon wants to know what Birdboot is doing and He just says that he can’t help himself. He claims that he can’t live without Cynthia.

Birdboot goes over to the corpse Moon telling him that he should leave it alone. He recognises the body as Higgs (the other critic). Moon is shocked at the fact that he is dead or even that he is there.

Birdboot is then shot. Moon now also enters the play. Instead of Moon and Birdboot in the critics’ chairs it is now Simon and Hound. So Moon is now hound. Cynthia comes on stage and asks once again “Oh my God – what happened, Inspector?”

Then Simon and Hound repeat the same lines as Moon and Birdboot did at the same point in this part of the play when Moon and Birdboot were the Critics.

Magnus, Felicity and Mrs Drudge enter and gather around Moon. Moon starts to get confused when the other characters call Birdboot Simon and starts to get frustrated. Mrs Drudge then tells Moon about how she heard Cynthia and Felicity say that they were/wanted to kill Simon.

Magnus reveals that he is the Real inspector hound. However, Moon recognises him as his stand-in Puckeridge. Then he works out the mystery. That Puckeridge killed Higgs, then Birdboot. Puckeridge then pulls out a gun and shoots Moon. He then reveals that he is Albert who is Cynthia’s long lost Husband.

The play is ended with Cynthia and Puckeridge holding one another and Moon saying: “Puckeridge, you cunning bastard.”