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The Real Thing | Introduction

From the overnight sensation of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966) to the recent success of his script (with Marc Norman) for Shakespeare in Love (1998), Tom Stoppard has been acclaimed as one of the most important dramatic writers of the late-twentieth century. The Real Thing was first produced in 1982 on London’s West End, and the cast included Roger Rees and Felicity Kendal (who subsequently became Stoppard’s second wife). Its commercial and critical success was followed two years later by a sell-out production on Broadway in New York, with Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons in the main roles. That production won several Antionette ‘‘Tony’’ Perry Awards.

The play focuses upon Henry, who, much like Stoppard, is a successful playwright. Henry is married to an actress, Charlotte, who is playing the lead in his current play; he has fallen in love with another actress, Annie, for whom he soon leaves Charlotte. But is his new love ‘‘the real thing?’’ Underlying the major themes of love and adultery are related concerns. Does art influence life? Can life imitate art (the converse of the proverb ‘‘art imitates life’’)? Must art have a political and social value, as many people in Britain were then arguing, or can it stand alone, as art for art’s sake? Stoppard argues that intellectuals are taking political expression for literature, and he makes a strong case that art should be valued for its aesthetic merits alone.

Audiences in the 1960s and 1970s delighted in Stoppard’s wit and cleverness, although they occaT sionally questioned whether the playwright could apply his genius to real life problems such as love and passion. The Real Thing ended such speculation and confirmed Stoppard’s reputation for stylistic experimentalism and innovation.

The Real Thing Summary

Act I
Max, an architect, is at home drinking and playing with cards, when his wife, Charlotte, returns home from a trip to Switzerland. Max questions Charlotte about her trip, but his queries are disjointed and digressive. Charlotte is confused. Suddenly he reveals to her that he has found her passport. Charlotte has not in fact been to Switzerland— her present for him, placed in a duty-free bag, is nothing but a clever prop. Max assumes she has been away with a lover. He is devastated but resorts to ironic dialogue to contain his emotion. Charlotte, profoundly alienated from him, yet neither denying nor admitting his accusation, exits.

Scene 2 opens with a hostile exchange between Henry and Charlotte. At first, the audience believes that Henry is her lover. However, the audience soon realizes that they have it all wrong. Scene 1 was actually an extract from Henry’s new play House of Cards. Charlotte, his wife, is the lead actress in it and Max her co-lead.

Charlotte is far from happy. She feels that she has landed her part in House of Cards because she is Henry’s wife and not because of her acting ability. She is also resentful about the role she is playing. She complains to Henry that he cannot write female characters, and that she functions as the ‘‘feed’’ for Max’s more substantial lines, which also garner better laughs. Charlotte’s comments—particularly about the audience’s groan following the revelation of her character’s adultery—are very pertinent, since the real audience has probably just reacted in such a way.

Max enters, closely followed by his actress wife, Annie. Instead of bringing a bottle of wine, Annie brings a bag of vegetables to the little gathering. As soon as Charlotte and Max have gone into the kitchen, it becomes clear that Annie is having an affair with Henry. When Charlotte and Max reenter, the dialogue moves into another level: Henry and Annie continue to talk to each other intimately, but to Max and Charlotte, their dialogue appears to be part of the larger conversation. Much of the dialogue has double entendres that only the lovers— and the audience—understand.

The scene ends after the socially conscious Annie has talked at length about her latest cause... » Complete The Real Thing Summary