3 STARS, October 3-14. Amanda Hodges reviews an engaging production of one of Tom Stoppard’s best-known works at the Rose Theatre
Edmond Terakopian
Stoppard’s witty and eloquent play, originally produced in 1982, may employ the artful device of a play within a play but its heart lies with the subjects of love, fidelity, authenticity and honesty, each interwoven liberally into the fabric of its composition.
It’s also an intimate work and some of its impact can seem lost on the large scale of the Rose’s stage (notwithstanding Jonathan Fensom’s stylish set) but thankfully the calibre of the cast in Stephen Unwin’s revival largely compensates for this, Laurence Fox in particular is persuasive as Henry, a prominent playwright who, as the drama opens, is having an affair with Annie, an actress friend of his wife Charlotte. But for Henry, a man whose witty and sometimes facetious exterior belies his innate romanticism, this becomes the defining relationship of his life, ‘the real thing’ of the title.
Fox is low-key in the early scenes, gaining real momentum in the second half when he proves completely convincing as a man whose vulnerability is exposed by the depth of his love. All the characters here can sometimes appear a little artificial and self-aware but because Fox and Flora Spencer-Longhurst’s Annie make their relationship believable this carries the play.
Edmond Terakopian
Henry is also a man who reveres words. As he declares at one point when Annie is trying to defend the dubious literary pretensions of Brodie, a young soldier, “I don’t think writers are sacred but words are. They deserve respect, “ and this philosophy reverberates throughout the play. It’s perhaps seen at its best in the wonderful moment when Henry uses a cricket bat to demonstrate the impact of well chosen words, a useful metaphor that Fox delivers with real brio and conviction.
The production is certainly at its strongest in the engaging scenes between Henry and Annie, invariably weaker when dealing with Brodie who seems a rather unnecessary subplot really. It doesn’t always dazzle but certainly it gathers pace as the evening progresses, largely courtesy of Fox’s engaging central performance.
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