Tom Stoppard, Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth

Fergus Edwards (University of Tasmania)

Ed. by Graham MacPhee, University of Manchester, Jessica Gossling, Goldsmiths College, University of London
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Nicole Kennedy (University of Newcastle), Gina Lyle (University of York), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1980

Places

United Kingdom (Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

Recommended Reading

Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth

unites two one-act plays that have common elements, most notably the invented language of “Dogg”, but also a Shakespearean intertext and an emphasis on theatre in performance: the names Dogg and Cahoot allude to theatre directors known to Stoppard. In

Dogg’s Hamlet,

an English-speaking deliveryman arrives at a Dogg-speaking school (whose headmaster is also called Dogg) and builds a stage so that a prize-giving presentation and a production of

Hamlet

can be performed. The play evolved over an eight-year period from

The Dogg’s Troupe 15-Minute Hamlet

and

Dogg’s Our Pet

and was inspired by an early passage in Ludwig Wittgenstein’s

Philosophical Investigations

(1953). This was a key reference point for

Jumpers

(1972) which Stoppard was…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2760 words

Citation: Edwards, Fergus. "Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 March 2025 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=15428, accessed 29 March 2025.]

View recommended reading for this article

Tom Stoppard, Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Resources

Save this article

Leave Feedback