TOM STOPPARD'S POSITION WITHIN THE TRADITION OF CONTEMPORARY COMIC DRAMA

omedies of the traditional type continue to be written and performed in the twentieth century. In England, Noël Coward and Ben Travers have been able to meet with commercial and critical success, without disrupting the mould of comedy of manners and farce respectively. The same can be said of Alan Ayckboum and the American playwright Neil Simon. However, a new type of comedy has emerged, one that differs from that of earlier periods of drama in both form and content. The broad trends of comedy of the new type do not stop at frontiers: playwrights like Tom Stoppard