text:
Ewe people

The Ewe people (Eʋeawó, lit. "Ewe people"; or Mono Kple Amu (Volta) Tɔ́sisiwo Dome, lit. "Between the Rivers Mono and Volta"; Eʋenyígbá Eweland; ) are a Gbe-speaking ethnic group. The largest population of Ewe people is in Ghana (6.0 million), and the second largest population is in Togo (3.1 million). They speak the Ewe language (Eʋegbe) which belongs to the Gbe family of languages. They are related to other speakers of Gbe languages such as the Fon, Gen, Phla /Phera, Ogun/Gun, Maxi, and the Aja people of Togo and Benin.

Demographics
Ewe people are located primarily in the coastal regions of West Africa: in the region south and east of the Volta River to around the Mono River at the border of Togo and Benin; and in the southwestern part of Nigeria (close to the Atlantic Ocean, stretching from the Nigeria and Benin border to Epe). They are primarily found in the Volta Region in southeastern Ghana, southern Togo, The Ewe region is sometimes referred to as the Ewe nation or Eʋedukɔ́ region (Togoland in colonial literature).

They consist of several groups based on their dialect and geographic concentration: the Anlo Ewe, Ʋedome (Danyi), Tongu or Tɔŋu. The literary language has been the Anlo sub-branch.

History
The Ewe people were formerly known as the Dogbo. The ancient history of the Ewe people is not recorded. They may have migrated from a place vividly recalled in their oral history called Ketu or Amedzofe (Amejofe), a town now in the republic of Benin,  in the region that is now the border between Benin and Nigeria; and then, because of invasions and wars in the 17th century, migrated into their current locations. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Ewe people likely had some presence in their current homelands at least as early as the 13th century. This evidence dates their dynamism to a much earlier period than previously believed. However, other evidence also suggests a period of turmoil, particularly when Yoruba warriors of the Oyo Empire ruled the region. Their own oral tradition describes the brutal king Agɔ Akɔli (or Agor Akorli) of Notsie (a formerly walled town in Togo), estimated to have ruled in the 17th century. The highhandedness of King Agor Akorli culminated in the escape and dispersal of the Ewe to their present locations.

They share a history with people who speak Gbe languages. All Gbe speaking people regard the Adja as the mother tribe. These speakers occupied the area between Akan land and Yorubaland. Previously, some historians have tried to tie them to both Akan and Yoruba ethnic groups. More recent studies suggest these are distinct ethnic groups who are neither Akan nor Yoruba, though they appear to have both influenced and taken influence from those groups.

The Ewe people had cordial relations with pre-slave trade and pre-colonial era Europeans. However, in 1784, they warred with Danish colonial interests as Denmark attempted to establish coastal forts in the Ewe and Yoruba regions for its officials and merchants. Nestled between powerful slave-trading kingdoms like the Asante, Dahomey and Oyo, the Ewes not only were victims of slave raiding and trade, but also sold their war captives to the Europeans. After slavery was abolished and the slave trade brought to a halt, the Ewes flourished in their major economic activities of cotton and rice farming, palm oil and copra production and exports. Their region was divided between the colonial powers, initially between the German and British colonies, and after World War I, their territories were divided between the British and a British-French joint protectorate. After World War I, the British Togoland and French Togoland were respectively renamed Trans Volta Togoland and Togo. Trans Volta Togoland later voted in a United Nations-supervised plebiscite to join the newly independent Ghana. French Togoland was renamed the Republic of Togo and gained independence from France on April 27, 1960.

There have been efforts to consolidate the Ewe peoples into one unified country since the colonial period, with many post-colonial leaders occasionally supporting their cause, but ultimately none has been successful.

Traditional religion
The sophisticated theology of the Ewe people is similar to those of nearby ethnic groups, such as the Fon religion. This traditional Ewe religion is called Vodun. The word is borrowed from the Fon language, and means "spirit". The Ewe religion holds Mawu as the creator God, who created numerous lesser deities (trɔwo) that serve as the spiritual vehicles and the powers that influence a person's destiny. This mirrors the Mawu and Lisa (Goddess and God) theology of the Fon religion, and like them, these are remote from daily affairs of the Ewe people. The lesser deities are believed to have means to grant favors or inflict harm.

The Ewe have the concept of Si, which implies a "spiritual marriage" between the deity and the faithful. It is typically referred to as a suffix to a deity. Thus a Fofie-si refers to a faithful who has pledged to deity Fofie, just like a spouse would during a marriage. Ancestral spirits are important part of the Ewe traditional religion, and shared by a clan.

Christianity
Christianity arrived among the Ewe people with the colonial merchants and missionaries. Major missions were established after 1840, by European colonies. German Lutheran missionaries arrived in 1847. Their ideas were accepted in the coastal areas, and Germans named their region Togoland, or Togo meaning 'beyond the sea' in Ewe language. Germans lost their influence in World War I, their Christian missions were forced to leave the Togoland, and thereafter the French and British missionaries became more prominent among the Ewe people.

About 89% of the Ewe population, particularly belonging to the coastal urban area, has converted to Christianity. However, they continue to practice the traditional rites and rituals of their ancestral religion.

Society and culture
The Ewe people are a patrilineal people who live in towns, cities and villages that contain lineages. Each lineage is headed by the male elder. The male ancestors of Ewe are revered, and traditionally, families can trace male ancestors. The land owned by an Ewe family is considered an ancestral gift, and they do not sell this gift in any way.

Ewe people are notable for their fierce independence, and they have supported a decentralization of power within a village or through a large state. Decisions have been made by a collection of elders, and they have refused political support to wicked kings or leaders, after their experience with the powerful 17th century despot named Agokoli. Despite all their internal conflicts, they come together in times of war and external conflicts. In regional matters, the chief traditional priest has been the primary power. In contemporary times, the Ewes have attempted to connect and build a common culture and language-driven identity across the three countries where they are commonly found.

While the Ewe are patrilineal, women are traditionally the major merchants and traders, both at wholesale and retail level. "They deal in a wide variety of items, many of which are produced by men."

Another notable aspect of Ewe culture, as stated by ethnologists such as Rosenthal and Venkatachalam, is their refusal to blame others, their "deep distress and voluntary acceptance of guilt" for their ancestors' role in the slave trade. They have gone to extraordinary lengths to commemorate former slaves amidst them, and making the ancestors of the slaves to be revered deities as well.

Music
The Ewes have developed a complex culture of music, closely integrated with their traditional religion. This includes Ewe drumming. Ewes believe that if someone is a good drummer, it is because they inherited a spirit of an ancestor who was a good drummer.

Ewe music has many genres. One is Agbekor, which relates to songs and music around war. These cover the range of human emotions associated with the consequences of war, from courage and solidarity inspired by their ancestors, to the invincible success that awaits Ewe warriors, to death and grief of loss.

Cross-rhythm drumming is a part of Ewe musical culture. In general, Ewe drums are constructed like barrels with wooden staves and metal rings, or carved from a single log. They are played with sticks and hands, and often fulfill roles that are traditional to the family. The 'child' or 'baby brother' drum, kagan, usually plays on the off-beats in a repeated pattern that links directly with the bell and shaker ostinatos. The 'mother' drum, kidi, usually has a more active role in the accompaniment. It responds to the larger sogo or 'father' drum. The entire ensemble is led by the atsimevu or 'grandfather' drum, largest of the group.

Lyrical songs are more prevalent in the southern region. In the north, flutes and drums generally take the place of the singer's voice.

Dance
The Ewe have an intricate collection of dances, which vary between geographical regions and other factors. One such dance is the Adevu (Ade - hunting, Vu - dance). This is a professional dance that celebrates the hunter. They are meant both to make animals easier to hunt and to give animals a ritual "funeral" in order to prevent the animal's spirit from returning and harming the hunter.

Another dance, the Agbadza, is traditionally a war dance but is now used in social and recreational situations to celebrate peace. War dances are sometimes used as military training exercises, with signals from the lead drum ordering the warriors to move ahead, to the right, go down, etc. These dances also helped in preparing the warriors for battle and upon their return from fighting they would act out their deeds in battle through their movements in the dance.

The Atsiagbekor is a contemporary version of the Ewe war dance Atamga (Great (ga) Oath (atama) in reference to the oaths taken by people before proceeding into battle. The movements of this present-day version are mostly in platoon formation and are not only used to display battle tactics, but also to energize and invigorate the soldiers. Today, Atsiagbekor is performed for entertainment at social gatherings and at cultural presentations.

The Atsia dance, which is performed mostly by women, is a series of stylistic movements dictated to dancers by the lead drummer. Each dance movement has its own prescribed rhythmic pattern, which is synchronized with the lead drum. "Atsia" in the Ewe language means style or display. The Bobobo (originally "Akpese") is said to have been developed by Francis Kojo Nuatro. He is thought to have been an ex-police officer who organized a group in the mid- to late 1940s. The dance has its roots from Wusuta and in the Highlife music popular across West African countries. Bobobo gained national recognition in the 1950s and 1960s because of its use at political rallies and the novelty of its dance formations and movements. It is generally performed at funerals and other social occasions. This is a social dance with a great deal of room for free expression. In general, the men sing and dance in the center while the women dance in a ring around them. There are "slow" and "fast" versions of Bobobo. The slow one is called Akpese and the fast one is termed Bobobo.

Agahu is the name of a dance as well as one of the many secular music associations (clubs) of the Ewe people of Togo, Dahomey, and in the south-eastern part of the Volta Region. Each club (Gadzok, Takada, and Atsiagbeko are other such clubs) has its own distinctive drumming and dancing, as well as its own repertoire of songs. A popular social dance of West Africa, Agahu was created by the Egun speaking people from the town of Ketonu in what is now Benin. From there it spread to the Badagry area of Nigeria, where inhabitants of the Ewe Settlement, mostly fishermen, heard and adapted it. In dancing the Agahu, two circles are formed; the men stay stationary with their arms out and then bend with a knee forward for the women to sit on. They progress around the circle until they arrive at their original partner.

Gbedzimido is a war dance mostly performed by the people of Mafi-Gborkofe and Amegakope in the Central Tongu district of Ghana's Volta Region. Gbedzimido has been transformed into a contemporary dance, and is usually seen only on very important occasions like the Asafotu festival, celebrated annually by the Tongu people around December. The dance is also performed at the funerals of highly-placed people in society, mostly men. Mafi-Gborkofe is a small farming village near Mafi-Kumase.

Gota uses the mystical calabash drum of Benin, West Africa. The calabash was originally called the "drum of the dead" and was played only at funerals. It is now performed for social entertainment. The most exciting parts of Gota are the synchronized stops of the drummers and dancers.

Tro-u is ancestral drum music that is played to invite ancestors to special sacred occasions at a shrine. For religious purposes, a priest or priestess would be present. There are fast and slow rhythms that can be called by the religious leader in order to facilitate communication with the spirit world. The bell rhythm is played on a boat-shaped bell in the north, but the southern region uses a double bell. The three drums must have distinct pitch levels in order to lock in.

Sowu is one of the seven different styles of drumming that belong to the cult of Yewe, adapted for stage. Yewe is the God of Thunder and lightning among the Ewe speaking people of Togo, Benin, and in south-eastern parts of the Volta Region. Yewe is a very exclusive cult and its music is one of the most developed forms of sacred music in Eweland.

Education
A key aspect of Ewe culture is a philosophy about how to interpret and educate oneself through life's events. The Ewe traditionally pass on generational wisdom through proverbs, many of which aim to contextualize the cultural reverence of life-long education. The traditional Ewe proverb which states "knowledge is like the Baobab Tree and no one can wrap the hands fully around it" exemplifies a profound appreciation of continual self-betterment, even if such a process will never realistically conclude within a natural lifetime.

In the post-colonial era, the Ewe people have acquired renown among Africans for their pursuit of academia and higher education. Many Ewe people travel across the world to pursue their education at leading institutions, following the aforementioned cultural motivations to enhance their knowledge base, and status among other Ewes. Of those who pursue higher education, many Ewe people attain graduate degrees in technical fields such as finance, engineering and law.

Language
Ewe, also written Evhe, or Eʋe, is a major dialect cluster of Gbe or Tadoid (Capo 1991, Duthie 1996) spoken in the southern parts of the Volta Region, in Ghana and across southern Togo, to the Togo-Benin border by about three million people. Ewe belongs to the Gbe family of Niger-Congo. Gbe languages are spoken in an area that extends predominantly from Togo, Benin and as far as Western Nigeria to Lower Weme.

Ewe dialects vary. Groups of villages that are two or three kilometres apart use distinct varieties. Nevertheless, across the Ewe-speaking area, the dialects may be broadly grouped geographically into coastal or southern dialects, e.g., Aŋlɔ, Tɔŋú Avenor, Watsyi and inland dialects characterised indigenously as Ewedomegbe, e.g., Lomé, Danyi, and Kpele etc. (Agbodeka 1997, Gavua 2000, Ansre 2000). Speakers from different localities understand each other and can identify the peculiarities of the different areas. Additionally, there is a written standard that was developed in the nineteenth century based on the regional variants of the various sub-dialects with a high degree of coastal content. With it, a standard colloquial variety has also emerged (spoken usually with a local accent), and is used very widely in cross-dialectal contact sites such as schools, markets, and churches.

The storytellers use a dialect of Aŋlɔ spoken in Seva. Their language is the spoken form and hence does not necessarily conform to the expectations of someone familiar with the standard dialect. For instance, they use the form yi to introduce relative clauses instead of the standard written si, and yia 'this' instead of the standard written sia. They sometimes also use subject markers on the verb agreeing with the lexical NP subject while this is not written in the standard. A distinctive feature of the Aŋlɔ dialect is that the sounds made in the area of the teeth ridge are palatalised when followed by a high vowel. For instance, the verb tsi 'become old' is pronounced "tsyi" by the storyteller Kwakuga Goka.

Ewe diaspora
As the Ewe demographic is a sparse but contributing population in West Africa, there have been organizations such as CEANA and Central Ewe Association of North America which aim to fund and initiate development projects and schools in Eweland, comprising Ghana, Benin, and Togo.

Related ethnic groups
Closely related: Gbe (Tadoid) languages-Adja, Fon, Mahi, Phera, Gun, Gen.

Adja is the original tribe, whence the rest of these -- except for Gen -- are descended. The 'Greater' Ewe ethnic group has further been considered to include the Gbe-speaking groups such as Gen, Phera, Mina, Adja, Ewe, Kotafon and Fon. Mina and Gen are mutually intelligible with Ewe and are regarded as dialects of Ewe.

Remotely related: Yoruba, Ga-Dangme

Notable Ewe

 * Sylvanus Olympio - First President of Republic of Togo
 * Jerry John Rawlings - Former President of Ghana, longest term ruler of Ghana.
 * Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka - Member of NLC after whom Ghana's Accra International Airport was named
 * Joseph Kokou Koffigoh - Former Prime Minister of Togo
 * Edem Kodjo - Former Secretary General - Organisation of African Unity now Africa Union.
 * Nicephore Soglo - Former President of Benin
 * Komla Agbeli Gbedemah - Former Finance Minister of Ghana under Kwame Nkrumah
 * John Willie Kofi Harlley - Former IGP under Kwame Nkrumah, Deputy chairman of NLC
 * Anthony Deku - Former IGP, Member of NLC
 * Bella Bellow - Togolese world acclaimed Musician. Composer of Blewu song performed by Angelique Kidjo when Donald Trump visited France in 2018.
 * Willie Klutse - Ex- Ghanaian international footballer. Member of 1978 Blackstars Afcon winning team
 * Dr Raphael Armattoe - 1948 Nobel Prize Runner Up
 * Esther Ocloo - First Ghanaian female industrialist
 * Philip Gbeho - Musician and Composer of Ghana's national anthem
 * Ephraim Amu - Musician and composer of traditional African music. Composer of the popular Ghanaian patriotic song ‘Yen yera asase ni’( miade nyigba lorlor la)
 * Fred Kwasi Apaloo - Former Chief Justice of Ghana. Former Chief Justice of Kenya
 * Professor Kofi Awoonor - Poet,author, academic and diplomat. Former Ghana’s permanent representative to the United Nations
 * Annie Ruth Jiagge - Lawyer, judge and women’s right activist. First woman judge of Ghana and the Commonwealth of Nations
 * Isaac Dogboe - Boxer, Former WBO junior featherweight holder
 * Monica Amekoafia - 1st Miss Ghana(Beauty Queen). The Volta Region is nicknamed Number 9 after her banner number.
 * Joseph Agbeko - Boxer, Former IBF and IBO bantamweight title holder
 * Sefadzi Abena Amesu (S3fa), Ghanaian afrobeats / afro pop musician
 * Marie Thérèse Metoyer, Businesswoman
 * Edward Doe Adjaho - Former Speaker of Ghana Parliament
 * Junior Agogo Former Ghanaian Blackstars player who played in the English premier league
 * Cody Gakpo Dutch national team football player.
 * Alex Agbo
 * Fofo Agbo
 * Jerome Agbo
 * Uche Henry Agbo
 * Alexander Djiku
 * Kossi Agassa
 * Dosseh Attivi
 * Patrick Attipoe - World War II veteran who in a bid to present a petition to the British colonial authority in Accra was killed with two others by Major Immray. This led to the Accra riots and expedited the independence of Ghana
 * Abu Ogogo
 * Emmanuel Hackman
 * MzVee
 * M.anifest
 * E.L.
 * Stonebwoy
 * Feli Nuna
 * Gale Agbossoumonde
 * Pascal Simpson
 * Ernest Hudson Jr. (ancestral)
 * Edward Kpodo
 * Steven Nador
 * Yorgan Agblemagnon
 * Liyabé Kpatoumbi
 * Serge Gakpé
 * Steve lawson
 * Dosseh Attivi
 * Emanuel Emegha
 * Francis Amuzu professional footballer
 * Christian Atsu, was a professional footballer
 * Eric Akoto
 * Jesse Darko
 * Kevin Danso
 * Klousseh Agbozo
 * Lilian Brassier
 * Halid Djankpata
 * Richard Nane
 * Roméo Lavia
 * Gnama Akaté
 * Seth Anthony First black African-born soldier to be commissioned as an officer in the British Army.
 * Virgil Abloh First-generation Ghanaian-American fashion designer, DJ and entrepreneur.

title: Ewe people


text:
Jesuit Asia missions

The Jesuits, or Society of Jesus, a Roman Catholic religious order, have had a long history of missions in East and South Asia from their very foundation in the 16th century. St. Francis Xavier, a friend of St. Ignatius of Loyola and co-founder of the Society, visited India, the Moluques, Japan and died (1552) as he was attempting to enter China.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Jesuit Asia missions


text:
Petya Dubarova

Petya Stoykova Dubarova (Петя Стойкова Дубарова) (April 25, 1962 – December 4, 1979) was a Bulgarian poet.

Life
She was born and lived in the seaside town of Burgas. Dubarova published poems in youth newspapers and magazines such as: Septemvriyche, Rodna Rech (Mother Tongue), and Mladezh (Youth). Some of her poems became songs, very popular in Bulgaria since the 1980s: Зимна ваканция (Winter holidays), Пролет (Spring), Доброта (Kindness), Лунапарк (Fun-fair), Нощ над града (Night over the city). Her mentors in writing were Hristo Fotev and Grigor Lenkov.

She studied in the English high school in Burgas (named after poet Geo Milev). There Petya read her works to her classmates multiple times. Although she earned fame at a very young age, which defines her as "the youngest of the big Bulgarian artists", she did not have friends. She was a studious student, talkative, and smiled a lot.

In 1978, she participated in the film Trampa (The Swap) by Georgi Djulgerov. During the shooting of the film in Samokov, at night, in the disco in the resort Borovets, Petya met Per, a Swede, whom she fell in love with. He remained her first and only love. In her diary, she describes him as „далечния, светлия, чаровния, нежния“ (the further, the light, the charismatic and the gentle one). They send letters back and forth for a while, but after that, he suddenly stopped writing to her. She was seriously upset by this.

It is very evident that in her last year of living, her thoughts were filled with despair and disappointment for humanity judging by her diary.

The diary
She keeps her diary updated most of the time. It reflects her emotions and feelings. It is like a friend that she never had. The diary is just a listener of all her desires, memories, confessions and struggles. Most normal, some unordinary and very deep. ''"The human is a negligible thing! Negligible! It wanders all its life, fights, creates something, but in the frames of its own human existence - it can't go over it. Look, if every human was a sun, a planet..."' (9 October 1978)

The last but one writing is from the 7th of September 1979. Then, Petya writes a confession:

"The most paradoxical in me is that suffering makes me happy. There is something great in suffering, something raising... How I imagine suffering - neon light, two unusually beautiful eyes, sadly calm, not staring anywhere, some kindness, prayer, dedication in them, from the neon they look black, but maybe they are brown, blue - no! A sad agreement, not reconciliation, but a sad agreement with everything they've lived through! And two hands, naked to their elbows, tightly hold a tall glass of beer. This is suffering. I have seen suffering. It was so close to me - on the table next to me. And how I had wished for it!"

"I don't know why, but I'd always been immensely happy. I despise those who need a certain cause to be happy - or to fall in love, or to achieve something. Sometimes my happiness was so painful, I've barely fought with it, to survive, not to get exhausted of its maddening power."

"I don't want to live blindly...Everything is so cursed, somewhere on the inside, from the depths of life, it smells rotten. But I want to believe there are worthy people, people pure and irreplaceable. If there really are, they must be unhappy..."

Early death
Dubarova committed suicide via sleeping pills on December 3, 1979, and died the following day December 4, 1979, at the age of 17. After her mysterious death, many rumours were spread. The most popular one is that The Young Communist League organized regularly "voluntary" work in a beer factory. Petya was accused that she purposefully had broken a machine's counter which counted the beer bottles. She could not prove her innocence, and could not bear the injustice. She left a note that says:

"Измамена (Deceived)

Младост (Youth)

Прошка (Forgiveness)

Сън (Sleep)

Спомен (Memory)

Зад стените на голямата къща (Behind the walls of the big house)

ТАЙНА (SECRET)"

According to her English teacher, the day after her funeral, Petya's school woke up to walls covered in graffiti such as "Mamka vi!" (F*ck you/Motherf*ckers!) and "Teachers murderers!" (near the teachers' room). The local poet Veselin Andreev partially accuses the teachers as well, by quoting Dubarova's mother's words at the funeral: "They killed my child!".

Selected works

 * "Az i Moreto" (The Sea and Me) (1980)
 * "Lyastovitsa. Stihove i Razkazi" (Swallow. Poems and short stories) (1987)

title: Petya Dubarova


text:
The Real Inspector Hound

The Real Inspector Hound is a short, one-act play by Tom Stoppard. The plot follows two theatre critics named Moon and Birdboot who are watching a ludicrous setup of a country house murder mystery, in the style of a whodunit. By chance, they become involved in the action causing a series of events that parallel the play they are watching.

The play was written between 1961 and 1962, drawing on Stoppard's experiences as a Bristol theatre critic. It was initially named The Stand-ins and later, The Critics. It is a parody of the stereotypical parlour mystery in the style of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, as well as of the critics watching the play, with their personal desires and obsessions interwoven into their bombastic and pompous reviews. The title is a direct reference to the ending of The Mousetrap, a play well known for guarding the secrecy of its twist ending, although the producers of Agatha Christie's play could not publicly object without drawing even more attention to the fact.

The Real Inspector Hound, much like Stoppard's earlier play Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, examines the ideas of fate and free will, as well as exploring the themes of the 'play within a play'. Stoppard's play is an example of absurdism as well as farce, parody, and satire. Critics have often praised it as a witty depiction of the reviewer's craft.

Setting: Place and time
While the story is set in a theatre, the play within the play is set in Muldoon Manor, a lavish manor surrounded by "desolate marshes" and "treacherous swamps" and paradoxically also located near a cliff. It is a direct parody of Agatha Christie's "closed" settings in which no one can enter or leave, so the characters know that the murderer must be one of them.

The manor itself is described as having French windows and a large settee. The play is set, as announced by Mrs. Drudge when answering the telephone, in the "drawing room of Lady Muldoon’s country residence one morning in early spring".

Critics
Moon – a second-string theatre critic, called to the production to review it in the absence of Higgs, another critic. Moon's jealousy of Higgs' superior reputation seems to make him question his own purpose, with Moon's ultimate thoughts being of Higgs' death.

Birdboot – a theatre critic and a womaniser, who catapults young actresses to stardom by delivering dazzling reviews in return, we assume, for sexual favours. While married to Myrtle, he is having an affair with the actress who plays Felicity in the play within the play.

Higgs – the senior critic, Moon is his stand-in.

Puckeridge – the third-string theatre critic, or Moon's stand-in. In early versions of the play, this character was called "McCafferty".

Play-within-a-play characters
Mrs Drudge – The maid, or char, of Muldoon Manor. One of Stoppard's primary vehicles for emphasising the satirical character of the story. Her cockney accent adds to the humour of Stoppard's play.

Simon Gascoyne – New to the neighbourhood, Simon has had affairs with both Felicity and Cynthia. He takes an instant dislike to Magnus, as they are both in love with Cynthia. Later in the play, Birdboot assumes the role of Simon Gascoyne, and vice versa.

Felicity Cunningham – A beautiful, innocent, young friend of Cynthia's who has had an affair with Simon and Birdboot. She is seemingly sweet and charming, but soon seeks ruthless revenge.

Cynthia Muldoon – Apparent widow of Lord Albert Muldoon who disappeared ten years ago. She claims to be very upset about her husband's disappearance, but the audience is led to think otherwise. Sophisticated and beautiful. She has had an affair with Simon.

Major Magnus Muldoon – Lord Albert Muldoon's crippled half-brother who just arrived from Canada. Has a desire for his late brother's widow, Cynthia. Takes an instant dislike to Simon, as they are both in love with Cynthia.

Inspector Hound – Appears from outside the house in the middle of the play to investigate an alleged phone call. Moon assumes this role near the end of the play, and vice versa.

Detailed summary
The Real Inspector Hound opens with two theatre critics, Moon and Birdboot. Since Moon's superior, Higgs, is unavailable, Moon is called upon to review the production. The other critic, Birdboot, seems to have an interest in the young actress playing Felicity Cunningham. Birdboot states that he is a "respectable married man", yet Moon's comments direct the audience to doubt this statement.

The play within the play is set in "Lady Muldoon's country residence one morning in early spring" and opens with a body lying on an otherwise empty stage. The help, Mrs. Drudge, gravitates to the radio, oblivious to the corpse, and turns it on just in time for an overly expository police message explaining that police are searching for an escaped madman in the swamps surrounding the manor. Simon, a mysterious young man new in the neighbourhood, enters the house, and it is revealed that he has dumped Felicity Cunningham for her friend Cynthia Muldoon, lady of the house. In the audience, Birdboot has mentally done the same. Major Magnus Muldoon, Cynthia's brother-in-law, is also in love with Cynthia. Eventually Inspector Hound from the police force arrives on the scene, apparently searching for the madman, and the company finally notices the body. The company splits up to look for a man of suspicion, when Simon is left alone on stage with the body, he bends over it and seems to recognise the victim, at which point he is shot by an unknown assailant.

During the play the two theatre critics discuss things they may write about this typical whodunit, but they are often sidetracked by their soliloquies, Moon's concerning his professional jealousy of Higgs and Birdboot's concerning his newly found "love", the actress playing Cynthia. As they talk, the telephone on stage begins to ring incessantly until Moon cannot stand it any more. He walks up on stage to answer it only to discover that Birdboot's wife, Myrtle, is on the line. Birdboot speaks to her and as he hangs up, the play suddenly starts again and he gets trapped in it, mistaken for Simon, leading to his inevitable demise as he executes the role to its end, just after recognising the dead body onstage as Higgs, the first string critic who was unavailable that night. Moon ascends the stage to unravel Birdboot's death, taking on the role of Inspector Hound. The actors playing Hound and Simon appear in the critics booth, having now taken the place of the critics and begin to comment on the onstage action, mockingly echoing the pompous manner the critics displayed previously. Major Magnus accuses Moon of being the madman after finding that he is not the real inspector Hound and revealing Moon's murderous thoughts towards Higgs; Major Magnus subsequently shoots Moon. As Moon lies dying on the floor, Magnus reveals himself to not only be the real Inspector Hound but also Cynthia's lost husband, Albert, who had disappeared ten years earlier. Moon, however, also recognises him as third-string critic Puckeridge, who will now become the first-string as both Higgs and Moon are out of the way.

Premiere
The first performance of The Real Inspector Hound took place at the Criterion Theatre in London on 17 June 1968 with the cast as follows:

 * Moon – Richard Briers
 * Birdboot – Ronnie Barker
 * Mrs. Drudge – Josephine Tewson
 * Simon Gascoyne – Robin Ellis
 * Felicity Cunningham – Patricia Shakesby
 * Cynthia Muldoon – Caroline Blakiston
 * Major Magnus Muldoon – Antony Webb
 * Inspector Hound – Hugh Walters

The play was directed by Robert Chetwyn, while the design was completed by Hutchinson Stott.

Reception
Clive Barnes of The New York Times dubbed The Real Inspector Hound "a perfect joy. Intellectually stimulating and civilized to just short of a fault, [...] The results are hilarious enough, but the froth leaves an oddly provocative aftertaste." Todd Everett of Los Angeles Times billed it as "a timeless farce" in 1992. A Chicago Reader reviewer wrote in 2010 that Stoppard's script "[opens] out beyond satire to express the strange elation, identification, and even erotic fascination any audience member can feel in the dark." The Telegraph's Charles Spencer said that The Real Inspector Hound "brilliantly nails the clichés of the reviewer's craft and the bitter jealousies of this grubby profession". Spencer said the play "[sends] up hackneyed thrillers and terrible acting with a winning mixture of sly humour and palpable affection."

The Guardian 's Michael Billington wrote that "Stoppard pins down perfectly the critical tendency towards lofty pronouncements [...] Stoppard also plays brilliantly on the spectator's secret desire to enter the house of illusion", praising the scene when Birdboot crosses the footlights. The critic joked, "If I weren't so scared of sounding like the pretentious Moon, I'd say Stoppard's play is a minor comic masterpiece about the theatrical process." Celia Wren of The Washington Post called it "a brilliant parody" with a "delectably language-drunk, hall-of-mirrors world." In 2012, Anna Lively of The Cambridge Student said that the work "has all the wit and originality that we expect from Tom Stoppard’s plays. [...] it subverts the familiarity of the murder mystery into a satisfyingly complex metatheatrical comedy."

The Tab 's Jamie P. Robson dubbed The Real Inspector Hound "an intricate pleasure [...] Myriad elements of the job are fantastically satirised: the bombast, the pretentiousness, the over-intellectual analyses". Robson argued that it "escalates into chaotic brilliance [...] when the critics step through the fourth wall [...] the unstoppable progress of the play-within-the-play to its twist-filled ending is as hilarious as it is magnetic." In 2016, Kate Wingfield of Metro Weekly dubbed it "very fun to be with", writing that "it is Moon’s bafflement that carries the humor and the tenor of Stoppard’s grand design."

BroadwayWorld's Nancy Grossman wrote that "even in this genre, Stoppard finds ways to be clever, inventive, and, at times confounding." Dominic P. Papatola of St. Paul Pioneer Press described Stoppard's story as "toothsome and involved". In 2018, Jonah Dunch of The Gateway called it a "comedic tour de force", praising "Stoppard’s erudite writing and clever plot". In the Daily Herald, Barbara Vitello described the play as "[well]-crafted with the trademark wordplay for which the brainy British writer is known". The Guadalajara Reporter staff wrote, "A classic of the English comic tradition, this play weaves together parody, pastiche and punning to create a wonderfully entertaining and ingenious one-act comedy." Zoe Paskett of Evening Standard listed it as one of Stoppard's five finest works (the others being Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia).

Conversely, Jan Herman stated in a 1991 review for Los Angeles Times that The Real Inspector Hound "is little more than a mannered cuckoo clock of a comedy". Deriding the script as "overdone", Herman argued, "What humor [Stoppard's allusions] still have depends less on recognition of the particular details he has borrowed from Christie’s play than on a more general idea of the traditional conventions of the well-made thriller." Jess M. Bravin of The Harvard Crimson judged the character development and story to be less impressive than the dialogue, and criticized the way that a 1987 Dunster House production "ponderously [followed] every twist in the script." Kay Kipling of Sarasota Magazine called the play "clever" but stated that "I found Hound wearing out its welcome just about five minutes before it actually came to an end. Maybe there’s only so much laughter one can take before tiring."

External references

 * Booth, Alison, Hunter, J P., and Mays, Kelly J, eds. The Real Inspector Hound. By Tom Stoppard. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2006.

title: The Real Inspector Hound


text: Talk:Their System Doesn't Work for You

title: Talk:Their System Doesn't Work for You