The Real Thing. To 21 March.
Salisbury.
THE REAL THING
by Tom Stoppard.
Salisbury Playhouse To 21 March 2009.
Mon-Wed 7.30pm Thu-Sat 8pm Mat Thu & Sat 2.30pm.
Audio-described 19 March 2.30pm, 8pm.
BSL Signed 18 March.
Runs 2hr 25min One interval.
TICKETS: 01722 320333.
www.salisburyplayhouse.com
Review Mark Courtice 2 March.
Sitting Comfortably?
After the curtain call they are appealing for money to replace the worn out seating at the Salisbury Playhouse (only £100 a time); but some of the wriggling amongst the audience at Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing will have been more recognition of uncomfortable truths about about love and betrayal than lack of padding in the seat cushions.
Provided of course that those who watch plays are interested in those who write them.
Henry knows how to write plays about marriage but is less successful with the real thing, which does not slot neatly together like one of his plots. His anguished acceptance of messy compromise is the core of the play - here moving and accurately felt in Richard Lintern's performance.
Being Stoppard, from the play's opening scene (one of Henry's - a play within a play) the whole thing is fiendishly complicated as art imitates life, good art is mirrored by bad, and both class and intellectual snobbery are skewered by withering satire.
And, being Stoppard, it's often very funny - well caught in this energetic production. Stoppard consciously refers to Noel Coward, and the production has all the high gloss, brittle sheen this evokes.
The play's not quite as smart as it thinks it is, there are ennervating chunks of heavy -handed philosophising, some of the characterisation is thin, and occasionally it's more confusing than clever.
Toby Frow's otherwise careful and consistent production does not always succeed in making these complexities clear, with strangely unfocussed moments, and occasions when actors are stranded stage centre.
It feels like a tight team are at work here however; performances especially from Lintern and Madeleine Worrall are sharp and interesting, the technical support is effective and the design works.
Actually the set by Ben Stones helps a lot. Flats shift up and down and side to side, smoothly fitting together - a box of tricks reflecting Stoppard's complicated play. Its eventual disjunction effectively underscores Henry's own state.
Max: David Birrell.
Charlotte: Sarah Winman.
Henry: Richard Lintern.
Annie; Madeleine Worrall.
Billy: Stephen Hagan.
Debbie: Amy Noble.
Brodie: Neil McNulty.
Director: Toby Frow.
Designer: Ben Stones.
Lighting: Tim Mitchell.
Sound/Music: Richard Hammarton.
2009-03-08 11:53:09