Huntington Stages 'The Real Thing'

"The Real Thing"
Written by Tom Stoppard; directed by Evan Yionoulis; scenery designed by Kris Stone; costumes designed by Katherine Roth; lighting designed by Stephen Strawbridge; sound designed by Daniel Baker; casting director Alaine Alldaffer; production stage manager Thomas M. Kauffman; stage manager Stephen M. Kaus

Cast in order of appearance:

Max Matthew Boston
Charlotte Meg Gibson
Henry Rufus Collins
Annie Kate Nowlin
Billy William Thompson
Debbie Pepper Binkley
Brodie Adam Saunders
Performances now through October 9
Box Office: 617-266-0800 or

"The Real Thing" as presented by the Huntington Theatre Company is a first rate production of Tom Stoppard's Tony Award-winning play. Two decades after its Broadway run of 566 performances, the story feels contemporary as the offstage and backstage lives of the characters take center stage, a phenomenon with which we are far too familiar in our present day culture.

The play opens with a scene from Henry's play, featuring Max and Charlotte (Henry's wife) as a couple playing out the discovery of her infidelity. She enters as Max is building a tower of playing cards on the coffee table and causes its collapse as she slams the door. This is the most blatant symbolism as well as foreshadowing of what is to come in the relationships of the two couples offstage. However, it does not diminish the deliciousness of watching it all happen.

We meet imperious Henry as he struggles over his choice of records for an appearance on a BBC radio program because his taste runs to 1960's pop music while he considers himself far more hi brow. In the midst of this exercise, Max and his wife Annie visit and begin the first of many political discussions as Annie has taken on the cause of an imprisoned activist (Brodie) . When Charlotte leaves the room to avoid the discussion, followed quickly by Max, it provides the opportunity for Annie and Henry to let us know that they are involved with each other. She is daring and coquettish while he keeps looking over his shoulder in fear that one of the spouses will return to the room. In the next scene, Max learns of Annie's infidelity and, like the tower of cards, collapses emotionally even as a wall tumbles down on the marital bed upstage.

At the end of Act I, the sense is that these characters play like real people (you can't "see" the acting). They relate and react to each other in believable ways. However, Matthew Boston's histrionics in the breakup scene seem a bit forced. We believe that Max is devastated over the loss of Annie, but he looks like a kindergartener hugging his mother goodbye on the first day of school.

Two years have elapsed when Act II begins with Henry and Annie now married and having a long-winded discussion about Brodie and the horrible play he has written. While Stoppard's writing is magnificent, this conversation bordered on tedium. However, it showed Henry being superior and full of himself, and Annie being her own person, separate from him, but perhaps a bit of a dilettante. In addition, they appear to be still figuring out how they fit together in this relationship. This is further complicated by time they must spend apart as Annie goes off to do a play in Glasgow and meets a young actor (Billy) on the train. He flirts with her shamelessly and she seems to reject his attention, but is actually quite flattered at being the flame to which the male moth is drawn. In Annie's absence, Henry must deal with a "family crisis" as his 17-year old daughter Debbie is about to go on tour with a "musician". While Charlotte doesn't seem ruffled by this, Henry is quite nonplussed. Debbie's role is not so well-defined, yet her speech in which she talks about everything being about sex, explains the actions of the adult characters. Henry explains to Debbie about love and that it is really about knowing and being known by one person in a way that is so very different from everyone else in your life. This awakens an awareness in Henry so that after Debbie departs, he and Charlotte talk in the knowing and comfortable way of a couple who were together for a long time. He asks her how many lovers she had while they were married, now that it doesn't matter. She tells him there were nine. He seems surprised and says he thought they had a commitment. She says, "There are no commitments, only bargains…" and they have to be renewed every day.

Meanwhile, the flirtation between Annie and Billy progresses so that a steamy scene in their play gets continued offstage where they finally go to bed. When Annie returns from Glasgow, Henry confronts her (again, mirroring the opening scene in the play-within-the- play) and says he needs to know. He rationally explains that he knows how these things happen, that one rarely sets out to begin an affair, but one thing leads to another. He just can't stand not knowing, but he really can't handle knowing it either. Later, he explains to Annie why he can live with the knowledge that she is continuing the affair: "I can't find a part of myself where you're not important." So, it seems he has found the real thing. Yet, after she goes off to meet Billy, Henry goes upstage and sits on the bed, the light brightens over him, and he rocks himself and says, "Please, please don't…" as we hear Procol Harum singing "Whiter Shade of Pale" on the record player.

In some ways, the play could have ended there, with much for the audience to think about in terms of Henry's comeuppance. As Annie said to Henry, "I had to choose to hurt someone and I chose you because I am yours." Because he lets her go her own way, Annie then tires of Billy and returns to Henry's side. They are very much together in the end, having gone through the phases of infatuation and disillusionment to reach the stage of acceptance. They are secure in their love for each other and know that they have the real thing. Hi brow Henry listens to "I'm a Believer" by The Monkees as the backdrop lifts, opening the stage to the sky.

If "The Real Thing" were a dessert, it would be Chocolate Decadence, as it is dense with rich, delicious language, topped with the frosting of wonderful musical selections from the 50's and 60's. While the dialogue is often rapid-fire, it provides the window to the souls of the characters and is to be savored. None of them is very likeable at first blush, but they evolve as do our opinions of them through the dialogue and they become more human, more feeling in the second act. Once Henry and Annie figure out that what they have is the real thing, nothing that has gone before matters. It is not that they have finally found what they wanted, but that they found they really want what they have.

This play will make you think about your own relationships, past and present, and you will want to determine if you have the real thing. It will also make you think about your relationship with the theatre and remind you how good it is when you find "The Real Thing."

www.huntingtontheatre.org

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