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It’s The Real Thing at The Western Stage in September
The Western Stage,
If playwright Tom Stoppard has a hobby, it is
virtually certain that it has something to do with puzzles.
From the beginning of his career with the now classic
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead to
more contemporary plays like The
Invention of Love, Stoppard has produced an entire canon of literary
puzzles that have engaged and delighted theatre audiences for over four
decades.
No more is his love of puzzles more apparent then in
his 1982 play The Real Thing, which
plays in The Western Stage’s intimate Studio Theater September 15th
through October 8th. Employing the same game play that has become a
hallmark of his stage craft, Stoppard constructs a theatrical puzzle about one
of humanity’s most puzzling topics: the nature of love.
At the center of the play is Henry, a clever if
somewhat emotionally distant playwright apparently modeled on Stoppard himself.
When Henry engages in an extramarital affair with Annie, the wife of the lead
in his latest play, his already tenuous marriage collapses like a house of
cards. Now beginning a new relationship with Annie, Henry finds himself
confronting the same series of questions, traps, and shortcomings that
sabotaged his first marriage. Is love a commitment or a perpetual negotiation?
What is the delicate balance between complete ambivalence and pathetic
jealousy? When is love real, and when is it just an illusion…or a game?
As if this was not enough material for a play,
Stoppard also manages to throw in some commentary about politics and the craft
of playwrighting into the intellectual juggling act that is his dramaturgical
impulse.
By the early eighties, plays like Jumpers, Travesties, and
Enter a Free Man had earned Stoppard
more praise and accolades than any playwright of his generation. Yet, he was
not without his critics. Some complained that his plays were actually no more
than game play. Not only did they fail to address the political issues of the
day, but they were also devoid of any truly personal issues. As a one time
theatre critic himself who once claimed to have left his job in journalism to
show people how to write a good play, Stoppard seems to have addressed these
critiques head on with The Real Thing.
(For more, read supplemental article.)
When Annie asks Henry to doctor (or rather ghost write)
a television script for Brodie, a Scottish radical imprisoned for burning the
wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during an anti-nuclear proliferation
rally, Stoppard opens up a venue to discuss his own ideas about the craft of
playwriting through the juxtaposition of the seasoned playwright and the angry
young radical with no formal training but a lot of passion. He also seems to
hint at why writing a play with an overt political message is deadly to the
playwright’s craft. While Brodie’s heavy handed teleplay sinks like a lead
balloon, Henry’s rendering of the same play demonstrates that the key
ingredient in good playwrighting is not a political message, but playfulness.
Of course, these are just a few of the pieces to the
fascinatingly intricate puzzle Stoppard has constructed with The Real Thing, and which the cast will
try to unravel under the direction of Jeff McGrath whose previous directorial
credits at TWS include The Cripple of
Inishmaan, Prelude to a Kiss, and
Laughter on the 23rd Floor.
The Real
Thing runs September 15th – October
8th. Performances are Fridays
and Saturdays at
Don’t miss the other exciting productions TWS has on
the boards for the latter half of its 2006 season. In October, Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn sails onto the MainStage followed by the riveting and still contemporary
American classic Inherit the Wind in
the Studio Theater. As tradition dictates, TWS will close its 2006 season in
December with a holiday musical for the entire family: Oliver!
Dan Tarker Literary Associate