Chapter 7 - Politics humanized

Summary

Theories don’t guarantee social justice, social justice tells you if a theory is any good.

Squaring the Circle (251)

As noted earlier, Stoppard rarely lobbies for or against particular political agendas in his theatre, repeatedly insisting that if you have a situation requiring immediate change, “you could hardly do worse than write a play about it.” Rather, Stoppard’s theatre is designed with the understanding that lasting change requires altered attitudes prior to – or simultaneous with – political legislation.

When Stoppard does address matters of a political nature in his plays, it is generally of a more abstracted nature, primarily involving institutionalized violations of individual human rights: “I don’t lose any sleep if a policeman in Durham beats somebody up, because I know it’s an exceptional case . . . What worries me is not the bourgeois exception but the totalitarian norm.” This sentiment has led him on numerous occasions to write about the Soviet empire during its final years, resulting in such fine minor works as Professional Foul (1977), Every Good Boy Deserves Favor (1977), Cahoot’s Macbeth (1979), and Squaring the Circle, Poland 1980–81 (1984).