Tom Stoppard and the Darkside of Drama, Theatre, and Philosophy

Abstract

The scholarship on Tom Stoppard’s theatrical engagement with philosophy has glossed over the playwright’s unique choice to use both analytic philosophers as characters and analytic methodology in his dramaturgy. This article, considering the 2013 radio drama Darkside, argues that Stoppard creates a uniquely analytic dramatic and theatrical universe in his “analytic plays,” which include Jumpers and The Hard Problem. Darkside imagines Philippa Foot’s famed “trolley problem” thought experiment, a cornerstone in analytic ethics, with one character existing in an abstract “thought experiment universe” that tests the longstanding distinction between “physical/mental” and “body/mind.” In so doing, Stoppard creates new avenues for collaboration among analytic philosophy, drama, and theatre.