SOURCE: "Unlikely Bedfellows: Politics and Aesthetics in Tom Stoppard's Recent Work," in Tom Stoppard: A Casebook, edited by John Harty, III, Garland Publishing, Inc., 1988, pp. 243-59.

Dean explores the interrelation of politics and playwriting throughout much of Stopparci's work.

Throughout Stoppard's plays questions concerning the artist, his responsibilities, and his work frequently surface. His characters are often painters, writers (including poets, journalists, and dramatists), musicians, or actors. Some are based on historical personages; some cut from whole cloth; one or two even suggest a close connection with Stoppard himself. Many of these characters are directly concerned with the creative, artistic process. Others, notably the many actors who populate his plays—Dorothy Moore in Jumpers (1972) and the players in Rosencrantz (1967)—are not primarily imaginative, but interpretive artists. Still others, like the journalists in Night and Day (1978), are marginally connected with art itself: first, because like other writers, they work...