Playing with Voices: an Analysis of Tom Stoppard’s Radio Plays

Abstract

This paper takes into consideration the so-called ‘minor works’ written for the radio by one of the most celebrated contemporary playwrights of our time, Tom Stoppard, with the purpose of showing the enormous potential of a dramatic format which has often been neglected by critics and which is not likely to receive so much scholarly attention as traditional drama. The first part provides the reader with an introductory background to the evolution of radio drama, outlining the main features that characterise this particular dramatic genre, in an attempt to discuss its limitations and its points of strength. In the following chapters, I proceed with a detailed analysis of Stoppard’s output for the radio, consisting of nine radio plays to date, conducted from a semiotic perspective: the aim of the present study is not only to focus on the recurring motifs in Stoppard’s radio plays, but to highlight the different techniques used by the playwright in order to convey his message to the audience through an exclusively aural medium. In the second chapter, I discuss two closely related aspects, analysing how the temporal and the spatial dimensions are represented respectively in Artist Descending a Staircase (1972), Where Are They Now? (1970), The Dissolution of Dominic Boot (1964), and In The Native State (1991). The third chapter is dedicated to another characteristic feature of radio drama, namely its capability to follow the mind’s movements and express the inner thoughts of a character, a technique that is present in different forms in the plays The Dog It Was That Died (1982), ‘M’ is for Moon Among Other Things (1964), If You’re Glad I’ll Be Frank (1966), and On Dover Beach (2007). Finally the fourth and last chapter presents some passages from Albert’s Bridge (1967) and other plays, focusing on how Stoppard has paradoxically found in radio a privileged medium to explore the theme of the relativity of perspective and to address the subject of the visual. Lastly, the chapter ends tackling the problem of the transposition from a sound-based medium like radio to a visual one, offering a brief comparative study of In The Native State and Indian Ink (1995), the adaptation for the stage written by Stoppard of one of his most successful radio plays. The study shows how Stoppard’s masterful use of radio has produced some unique dramatic effects that cannot be reproduced on the stage without involving a considerable loss in meaning and incisiveness, thus effectively demonstrating that radio drama does possess a distinct artistic identity. In addition, experimenting with this dramatic format contributed to Stoppard’s growth as a playwright, as it allowed him to explore several themes and techniques that he further developed in his stage plays; Stoppard’s radio plays demonstrate not only that indeed it is possible to craft a form of theatre exclusively for the ear, but that radio drama can still represent a stimulating dramatic format nowadays.