According to this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-31294431

But then again, I don’t care.

5 out of 7

cultured innit

5 out of 7 too. I’m like blue cheese me.

Only 4, back to Beckett for me!

Upper circle.

Oh the shame….

2 out of 7. Plays, and Tom Stoppard in particular, is a load of pretentious nonsense. I’d rather watch Jeremy Kyle.

Having seen Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead once I wouldn’t want to see another Tom Stoppard play.

3 out of 7

But I would rather pluck out my own eyes than sit through a Tom Stoppard play.

A big fat zero. Thick and unlucky but more to the point who the **** is Tom Stoppard.?

6 out of 7, a few lucky guesses. And a university education.

4 out of 7 but i guessed them all apart from the syd barrett question.

S’alright….I wouldn’t wish to go anyway, i’d much rather head to the sub-club for a proper night of culture

Prefer Beckett personally

i guessed them all apart from the syd barrett question.

Me too. That’s the only one I actually knew.

Three, and one of those was a guess.

Tom Stoppard plays are pretty low on my to-do list anyway tbh.

Should I be embarrassed to admit I got 7/7 and only guessed one answer (the last one).

Not a big fan of Stoppard’s TBH, always preferred Alan Ayckbourn.

I’m too thick…But then again, I don’t care.

Yet you cared enough to post about it, and to revel in your density. Somewhat confusing.

Favourite titled thread for ages. Now have the chuckles.

Yowzers that was high brow. 1/7 and that was pink floyd. Not too sure what I’ve failed there though, who is tom Stoppard?

6/7 and I’ve watched (and enjoyed) some of his plays. But if his attitude is that he is to write only for the “elite” and feels no obligation to address the remainer of society then sod him.

4/7 and one of those was a guess. I have no desire to see a Tom Stoppard play though maybe I will see king Lear some time.

It’s got nothing to do with being thick. It’s just making references to stuff that isn’t popular anymore. 😆

But if his attitude is that he is to write only for the “elite” and feels no obligation to address the remainer of society then sod him.

That’s not the way I interpreted what he said. He came across as wanting to write for as wide an audience as possible, but bemoaning the fact the general population isn’t as educated as, say, 30 years ago, and not being willing to drop what he perceives as his standards to appeal to more people.

If every writer, musician, artist of any sort, just chased as big an audience as possible we’d end up with a very narrow spectrum of work, and much of it utter drivel.

Not a massive fan of Stoppard myself, but I respect his views. That said, I’m also a fan of trying to encourage folk along to the theatre, which does mean putting on more accessible productions. Some will then go on to really appreciate Stoppard’s work, others won’t.

Isn’t ther basically a massive gap in “culture” between staying in and watching Casualty and Enduring expensive high brow tosh? Until netflix came along I felt like people just din’t care about the middlebrow…

Who?

I was in a Tom Stoppard play many years ago. When the cast were getting the jokes for the first time at the dress rehearsal after 4 weeks of rehearsals I think we realised it might be a bit of a stretch for the good patrons of Keighley playhouse.

Most of the in-jokes and cultural references in Shakespeare, Chaucer and Milton have to be laboriously explained to a modern audience.

We’re not less educated, Tom. Your stuff just got old.

I’m too thick to watch a Tom Stoppard play.

I had forgotten who he was.

That’s not the way I interpreted what he said. He came across as wanting to write for as wide an audience as possible, but bemoaning the fact the general population isn’t as educated as, say, 30 years ago, and not being willing to drop what he perceives as his standards to appeal to more people.

Perhaps one day he will be intelligent enough to realise that not everyone is not that well educated, even back then, just less people find what he writes as less relevant. He may one day find an intelligent way to write to that wider audience.

He will have to come down off that mountain first of course.

Uno and that was the Pink Floyd one

I read an article earlier today, I forget where, which made the point that people still know alot but about different stuff, particularly science wise, which is somewhat illustrated by the subject matter of his latest play.

He’s completely right, no-one should feel they are obliged to write for a specific audience or change the range of intellectual reference. They shouldn’t be surprised if their audience is limited though.

I like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, but I do rate Hamlet. Arcadia is my favourite of his plays though.

I suspect most of the comments about elitism are more a reaction to the picture of him looking suitably posh and black tie, alongside the deliberately clickbait title of the article. Stoppard, along with writers such as John Berger and Tony Harrison are part of that lefty intellectual mentality who wished to demystify the arts and make them accessible to all, collapsing the idea of ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture.

How successful this has turned out to be is debatable; on the one hand, crap like this gets attention in newspapers, but on the other hand programmes like ‘Family Guy’ combine references to Shakespeare, Musical theatre, Christian and Islamic theology, as well as obscure 1980s US TV, and it is consistently popular.

Oh, and 3/7.

It’s the idea that count not being smart about references. Besides, no-one gives a shit about where you sit in a theatre anymore, as long as you can see.

It’s not elitism.

If you’re motivated enough to go and see a Stoppard play, I guess you’ll be motivated enough to learn a bit about the background and understand the references.

If that floats yer boat then crack on. If not, do something else.

No idea who Goneril is, but i bet he doesn’t know who Garrus Vakarian is.

I’m a real fan of his work. To my mind they are stand-alone: they’re good and funny even if you don’t get the references. If you do however, it gives an even greater buzz of pleasure.

Exactly like dropping in appropriate references in all art forms from the Simpsons to Ruebens to Fat Boy Slim to Teenage Fanclub to Beethoven to…

Oh, and if you want to see a West End play that’s loaded with references but a complete laugh a minute go and see [video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKCZLNdjQ3k[/video] The Play That Went Wrong. It’s like Acorn Antiques directed by Count Arthur Strong.

Hmmm and then he wonders why no one panders to his elitist nonsense watches his plays.
I can’t imagine Shakespeare whinging about it. He wrote multi-layered plays with something for every strata of society (now we might not get the references but his audience did).