THE REAL THING. To 12 March.

Manchester

THE REAL THING
by Tom Stoppard

Library Theatre To 12 March 2005
Mon-Thu 7.30pm Fri-Sat 8pm Mat 26 Feb, 5, 9, 12 March 3pm 2 March 2pm
Audio-described: 9 March 7.30pm 12 March 3pm
BSL Signed: 2 March 7.30pm
Captioned: 8 March
Study Day 26 Feb 11.30am (+ 3pm show)
PlayDay 2 March 10.30am (+ 2pm show)
Pre-show Director's Talk 24 Feb 6.30pm 5 March 2pm
Runs 2hr 30min One interval

TICKETS: 0161 236 7110
www.librarytheatre.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 16 February

A fine revival that has the play's measure and a superb cast.This may run 15 minutes longer than Northampton's near-concurrent revival, but it runs far more smoothly too. Chris Honer's direction interweaves the play's two strands seamlessly to form a single fabric. There are the familiar Stoppard tricks with exposition, language and stagecraft, and discussions about playwriting (similar to that on journalism in Night and Day 4 years earlier than this 1982 piece).

These are balanced by an equally cerebral but more troubled dialogue on love. The two come together as playwright Henry's affair with activist-actress Annie causes a double divorce affecting their spouses Max and Charlotte, both actors in Henry's play House of Cards. In House, a scene from which opens The Real Thing, infidelity turns out an illusion, unlike what's about to happen to Henry himself. Life fails to live up to being a mirror of art.

Honer follows the mood shifts, and the differences between Henry's artistic certainty and emotional reticence. He can't write Love. Yet, compiling 8 records for Desert Island Discs', he comments on his passion for pop and aural-blindness to classical music while laying down Mandarin standards for stage dialogue (Stoppard cheekily distinguishes this from screen-fodder, where words feed the vision medium).

Peter Lindford captures all this in his finely-judged performance. There's a thoughtful hesitancy, at times an apology for his literary convictions, but also the quiet firmness of someone who knows he's right but doesn't want to barge into others' lives. This contrasts the younger men, actor Billy (given an outgoing attraction by Justin Brett) and Brodie, political prisoner plus accidental (and dire) playwright, to whom John Milroy brings inborn aggressive class hate.

Brodie's a working-class Scots soldier (Scotland seems a vague terrain of uncivilisation in this play) whose political protest turns out mere vandalism, designed to attract Annie. Her class guilt and arrogance mixes concern and indifference towards him. It's something Lucy Tregear exudes along with a comfort in her desire for Henry, something he might envy but is unable to match. Flowing smoothly on Judith Croft's elegantly grey set, backed by interscene video currently beloved at this theatre, here is another Library winner.

Max: Christopher Wright
Charlotte: Caroline Harding
Henry: Peter Lindford
Annie: Lucy Tregear
Billy: Justin Brett
Debbie: Katie Wimpenny
Brodie: John Milroy

Director: Chris Honer
Desinger: Judith Croft
Lighting: Nick Richings
Sound: Paul Gregory
Assistant director: David Kenworthy
Video artist: Roma Patel

2005-02-21 11:51:04