Radian has given us a difficult but good and sound puzzle today. The theme is based on someone whose birthday I just looked up, but today isn’t some great anniversary. Perhaps it is, though, and no doubt we will be enlightened.
I was under the impression for quite a while that the references were simply plays, but when I started to do the links I realised that they were all by Tom Stoppard. There are also one or two other references to the theatre (like gods and circle, or Hamlet). No doubt eagle-eyed readers will find some reference I’ve missed.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | JUMPERS — jumpers = sweaters and jumpers = jump leads (no doubt), also this play |
| 5/16 | THE REAL THING — referring to the advertisement for Coca-Cola in which Coke is said to be ‘the real thing’ — there Althing [parliament in Iceland] — also referring to this play |
| 10 | MOON — moo [= low] n{umber}, &lit. because not many went to the moon |
| 11 | PRETTIFIED — (fitter)rev. in pied, the contents/container indicated by ‘nurses’ |
| 12 | CIRCLE — (cleric)* — referring to the seats in a theatre |
| 13 | TR(AVEST{an})Y — 8dn being AVESTAN |
| 14 | ANTIPODAL — ant [= colonist] iPod [= music centre] {c}al{l} |
| 17 | C(0)AST — ‘boring’ the indicator that 0 is inserted |
| 19 | A GOOD DEAL — def ‘Much’, ago [= earlier] odd [= rum] (ale)* |
| 23 | MODERATO — (to dream)*, the anagram indicated by ‘Perchance’ o [= 12, circle] |
| 24 | wITH A CAst |
| 26 | DIRTY LINEN — ((try)* line) in din, also this play |
| 27 | UN(D)O — uno is Italian for one |
| 28 | UNTRUTH — rut in (hunt)* |
| 29 | USED CAR — US (raced)*, &lit. |
| Down | |
| 2 | U TOPI {Bechu}AN{aland} |
| 3 | Play About News International Crisis |
| 4 | RIPIENO — rip [= Yank] (one)rev. after 1 — a musical term |
| 6 | HETMAN — (anthem)* |
| 7 | REF RE SHED |
| 8 | AVES TA N{ietzsche} — Aves is the Latin term for birds as a class of vertebrates — yes, Chambers (just) allows classic = classical in this sense — Avestan is the language spoken by Zarathrustra |
| 9 | NEUTRAL GROUND — a clue for ‘Lear nut’ might be ‘Neutral ground’ — and this play |
| 15 | INSPECTOR — (PC orients)* — 20dn is ORIENTS, and if the PC is promoted he may become an inspector — promotion = inspector doesn’t seem to me to work well — presumably we are to read ‘inspector’ as ‘the object of promotion’ — there is a veiled reference to Stoppard’s play ‘The Real Inspector Hound’ |
| 18 | OX ON IAN — referring to Jesus College Oxford |
| 20 | ORIENTS — (in store)* |
| 21 | ARCADIA — c with (a Radia{n}) surrounding it — referring to this play and also defined as ‘pastoral setting’ |
| 22 | HAMLET — (them al{l})* |
| 25 | HOUND — h (undo)*, 27ac being UNDO |
Thanks John
Regarding your comment in 15dn about a “veiled reference”, there is more than that – 5ac, 15dn, 25dn.
Also, 2dn, 17ac could be an interpretation of ‘The Coast of Utopia’. Another Stoppard play is ’15 minute 22dn’. 10ac is in the title of several Stoppard plays and 13ac is the singular of yet another.
That can’t have been an easy puzzle to blog John.
The theme passed me by completely. I had to use aids to check that 6dn was HETMAN and not HETNAM, and I also had to use aids to get RIPIENO because I couldn’t see rip=yank.
After those two JUMPERS was my last in, with it being the most likely answer from the “they warm you up” part of the clue. I didn’t know the play so I was unaware that I was looking at a triple definition, and without that knowledge I couldn’t untangle the rest of the clue, although in retrospect I probably should have seen jumpers/jump leads.
INSPECTOR also went in without full wordplay understanding. I can see the relationship between PC and promotion but not exactly how the clue is supposed to work.
It took me a while to get going on this puzzle but I eventually realised there was a Tom Stoppard theme after I solved JUMPERS & DIRTY LINEN.
I enjoyed the fact that there was quite a lot of humour in this puzzle. My favourites were 19a, 29a, 11a, 9d, 14a, 23a, 28a.
New words for me today were AVESTAN, AVES = birds, HETMAN, OXONIAN. TOPI = pith helmet was also new, but more easily understandable to me as TOPI = hat in Bahasa Indonesia.
I couldn’t fully parse 5a/16 (I remembered the advertising for Coca Cola being “the real thing” but I couldn’t parse “a house in Iceland”) & 7d.
22d HAMLET also made me think of the Tom Stoppard play, ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead’.
Thanks for the blog, John.
Thanks, John.
Radian is a tough setter: throw in a theme I’m not that familiar with and stick some less than 50% checking around the grid, and …
But I did (eventually) finish it; and to be fair, Stoppard is not entirely unknown. This is about at the outer edge of my ability to solve a daily cryptic, so there were many where I stuck the answer in and then thought ‘how does that work?’
Call me anal if you like, but I’m no fan of ‘most of’ in 13ac. Radian is a tough setter ‘most of the time’, But how much is ‘most of’?
MODERATO and MOON were excellent clues.
Well, a theme I knew something about – seen several of these plays and once I got “The Real Thing” and “Jumpers” it wasn’t easy, but I did see daylight.
Nice misdirection if you know Stoppard in 24ac as Travesties is about Joyce writing Ulysses in Zurich and with a C as the fifth letter, I was about to enter it when I got 25dn.
Looking at my (incomplete) collection of seventeen Stoppard plays I can’t see a single one with 10 across in the title, but Stoppard’s only novel is Lord Malquist and Mr Moon.
Hi Polly
As well as the book, there is: ” ‘M’ is for Moon Amongst Other Things” and “Another Moon Called Earth”.
Thanks, Gaufrid. Oh my, I am out of date – but at least I added a little to the discussion.
Theme largely missed but thanks both. What’s the betting on klingsor in the morni
ng to replace dac?
Some devious clueing today from Radian plus some unknown words. We did however discover the theme fairly early on as we’d actually seen and enjoyed many of the plays.
Thankfully we now have wi-fi working again. There were a few we couldn’t parse yesterday and had to wait until today to check with 225!
We did wonder whether 10ac was also referring to the Nursery Rhyme in which the cow jumped over the moon.
Thanks Radian and John for the blog.
Also, Moon is the name of one of the critics in The Real Inspector Hound.I’m usually a lurker, but wanted to add my two pennorth to this, as Stoppard is one of my great heroes. I loved this crossword.
I’ve vaguely heard of Tom Stoppard but didn’t even know be was a playwright. This one went straight in the bin I’m afraid. Why can’t there ever be themed puzzles about electropop or football or anything vaguely non-elitist.