FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1998 All Rights Reserved.
| THEATRE The Real Thing "Loving and being loved is unliterary." Typical of Tom Stoppard, the words come from one of his unswervingly literary characters, in the throes of a love affair. Henry is a playwright who finds himself unable to voice his passion because, as he puts it, it always comes out silly and embarrassing. Anything but silly and embarrassing, of course, The Real Thing is one of the most intimate of Stoppard's plays, narrowing in scope from his more epic Arcadia, or Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, where a plot summary can go on for days. Instead, the play focuses on a small cast of characters: playwright Henry and his wife Charlotte, and their friends, actors Max and Annie. Max and Charlotte are starring in one of Henry's plays, playing a married couple with fidelity issues. Offstage, Henry and Annie are having an affair which puts both of their marriages in jeopardy. As a playwright himself, it's not surprising that Daniel Libman is virtually invisible as a director. If anywhere, his hand is clearest in the realm of timing, taking full advantage of the comic elements in a play that could easily descend into an alternately self-deprecating, self-pitying rant. His production doesn't wallow for an instant in Henry's angst, preferring instead to linger on Stoppard's wry observations on the playwright's artifice. Henry's play has Max's character wittily berating his cheating wife, played by Charlotte, who is scornful of the bon mots her husband places in Max's mouth. She doubts that Henry himself would display such savoir faire in the same situation. "His sentence structure would go to pot," she says, "closely followed by his sphincter." Such dialogue sits comfortably on a cast that includes Dennis Fitzgerald (TJ's Divorçons, ATP's A Guide to Mourning) as Henry, and David LeReaney (last season's A Christmas Carol at TC, Mirad: A Boy from Bosnia) as Max. Both actors possess the rare ability to draw a laugh from a 200-strong house, without resorting to caricature. Christianne Hirt (Lonesome Dove) has a less colorful role as Henry's true love, Annie, but draws every moment of complexity from the conflicted character. As Stoppard fans will expect and appreciate, The Real Thing draws no sweeping conclusions about what the real thing actually is, whether in the realm of fidelity in relationships, "high art" versus pop culture, or the transformative power of the arts, all of which have their place in this play. An audience will leave the theatre with more questions than answers, and that's as it should be. |