The Real Thing

Tom Stoppard, Britain’s wittiest writer for the stage takes a sideways look at love.

The Real Thing begins with Charlotte’s return home from a business trip to Geneva – or so she claims. However, her husband Max has discovered evidence that she may have been elsewhere.

Yet nothing is quite as it seems: Charlotte is an actress who has been appearing in a play written by her husband, Henry. He is having an affair with Annie, Max’s real wife. The play is sparklingly witty in vintage Stoppard style. It revisits some of Stoppard’s favourite themes in its exploration of illusion and reality and its representation on stage, the use and abuse of language, and human relationships.

Directed by John Mackay