STOPPARD’S “NIGHT AND DAY” MARGINALIA
First read of “Night and Day” was tedious and I thought it dated and insubstantial. A big name like Stoppard, and he wrote this? Not his best work I presume. I liked the play's opening with a dream. Confusing the audience early on makes them vulnerable, and more receptive to accept the world of the playwright.
Guthrie, the photojournalist is a “type” I recognize from hanging out with paparazzi. I was earning my living as a photojournalist (and poet) in rural Sonoma County, but a poet friend Carolyn Forché said, don’t just write about guerrilla warfare, bear witness. And so I went to Latin America and the USSR, documenting whatever I could. I know Guthrie’s egocentric world of by lines, getting the news, and then getting it out, telexes, I was in the USSR right before the fall, and before email and had to get news out via carrier pigeons…
Opening Ruth’s scene with drums clues us in that there’s a war going on (or the natives are restless), and it sets the scene. Dry humor: is he asleep or dead? Followed by tea, so very civilized...dichotomy of drums and tea. Neo-colonialism. Mad dogs and Englishmen under an African sun. Interesting overstepping of bounds, boundaries, territories—the English in Africa, Guthrie in Carson’s house, the Africans with each other.
Interesting use of “Ruth” surreally spouting off what would never be uttered in company, polite or otherwise. Makes it farcical, and breaks the 4th wall nicely. We know we'll be hearing from her: when the two Ruths collide, something will happen. Red Alert. Ruth’s very outspoken, an issue of class, sparring with Guthrie about cultural sensitivity as in “boy” vs. Francis....but Francis is still a slave. Ironic. But he'll run off and join Col. Shimbu's ALF commies at the end.
“Proper drink.” Propriety will be maintained. Which means the crux of the story will use a breakdown of “proper” form. Stoppard is giving us all the germinal bits of the story in the opening lines. Territorial squaring off between Ruth and Guthrie. The barely concealed venom beneath velvet gauntlets.
“Ruth” resorting to The Beatles' “Help” is funny. Wag-ner Vagner jokes (The Neiblunglings are evoked—more disaster threatening in the wings). I always pay attention to character's names...clues are buried. Ruth-less...without mercy. Guthrie: a good tough guy name. Let George do it. Milne? Gawd: not Winnie-the-Pooh? But Milne has a bit of that in his character. Carson: I think Carson City, comstock mines...lo and behold he's a miner! So we've got the miner wanting to protect his investments. Guthrie: Did you clock the telex? The thirty-somethings aren't gonna get this very specific reference. It carries a lot of weight. Pre Marshall McLuhan global village. It means you can litera(ri)lly get the news in Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Even the hotel doesn't have one. How backwards is this place? An urgent message for Stanley (Mr. Livingston, I presume?).
GOBs (Good old boys) trading “war” stories a la Hemingway. Guthrie's speech about the neophyte getting the best shot. Front page scoop envy and newspaper rivalry. I found the free press versus closed shop scene a bit hard to follow on the page (I was glazing over and not retaining the information—didacticism at work) but when I saw the play, it worked well. Red Alert: The playwright's political message: scabs vs freelance...a microcosm of this war? Newspapers listed in order of importance. Miss the deadline, kill a story. Milne's naivitŽe is excruciating, the naive opportunists get the scoop, but the penalty is that they'll die young: Milne and the Groupie. (Parallel structure foreshadowed.)
Curious that Ruth, who has suffered at the has of sensational journalism in the scandal sheets, would have had a fling with Wagner, then Milne. Of course, journalists are hierarchical, these guys aren't in the yellow tabloid business. Subplot of love triangle, er, quadrangle is vaguely humorous, but not necessary to the plot. It give Ruth something to do on-stage (if tedious). Did playwright run out of steam? She obsesses on her easy virtue (such as it is) and the trivial realm because women have been marginalized so, but she too wants to retain her power, all the characters are fighting for petty kingdoms on one front or another, whether it be Guthrie, Wagner and Milne; Carson, Shimbu, or Mageeba.
I like Ruth's warning: to watch out for President Mageeba's laugh but Wagner misses the connection and we are given a taste of real brutality in the midst of a farce. As the tension mounts, Wagner gets his exclusive interview and spar with Mageeba on the relative merits of the free press, but Wagner's beating is the turning point of the play; it will be tragedy from here on out. Milne's death is a necessary martyrdom, part of the story of journalists living on the edge, a tribe apart. Mageeba is a dangerous leopard revealed as Caliban after all. Propriety fails, the white handkerchief of truce ignored, Milne shot. I am reminded that All's fair in love and war...
Skillful storyline. The course of action in the play takes place on one afternoon and into the wee hours of the next day. The Potteresque musical use of “Night and Day” to close the play brings us back to Ruth's farce: “That’s why the lady..is a tramp.” And the grim realization that they're all whores, every last one of them.
Oct. 4, 2002
CW 810, Thorstenson
Assignment #4
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