Osip Theatre come to the Tabard Theatre with a revival of Tom Stoppard’s hilarious award-winning play The Real Thing for its first performance in London since 2000. The play opens during a major revival of another of Stoppard’s plays: Every Good Boy Deserves Favour at the National Theatre.
This comic work, originally staged in 1982, has received a host of awards, including a Tony Award for Best Play in 1984. It examines the nature of honesty, adultery and reality, focusing on the nature of true love through the relationship between playwright Henry and his actress wife Charlotte.
"Annie (played with ease and poise by
Lily Bevan), having ditched the awkwardly reticent Max for the dashing
candour of playwright Henry, complains that being on the right end of unrequited
love is an uninteresting and irritating tedium. The pain of her ex-lover
bores her. It is an excellently cold and, if I can brave such a term, authentic
depiction of a relationship's aftermath. As one hurts, the other exults.
Stoppard, through his fictional plaything Henry, suggests that the limit
of art is to nudge perceptions in the right direction. A lesser company
may have bodged this. Osip Theatre
do not. I was sincerely nudged, and I urge you to be nudged too."
British Theatre Guide
"'The Real Thing' explores the age old questions;
'What actually is this thing called love?' 'Does art influence life?'
'Can life imitate art?' Much like real life, these questions are never
fully answered, but form the backbone of a heartfelt and reflective play.
Hanna Berrigan directs this intimate piece and successfully plays on
the Tabard's atmospheric theatre to grant the audience peeping tom status
as we sit, enthralled at some of the more personal and poignant moments.
A thoroughly enjoyable production."
Totally Theatre
"Infidelity. A single word from which stems a
multitude of uncertainties - what boundaries must be crossed in order
to be considered cheating; are they solely physical, or is emotional
unfaithfulness just as destructive? This hovering grey area seeps into
the onstage world of The Real Thing and guides the relationships of its
characters through an array of conflicts, sometimes resulting in triumphs,
other times in consequences."
Whats on Stage
Director Hanna Berrigan graduated from RADA in 2001 and has established a strong reputation as a director of both new writing and revivals. In addition to directing her own work she has worked as an associate on The 39 Steps at the Criterion and assisted on shows at The National Theatre, The Royal Court and for the RSC.
