The very choice of Tom Stoppard’s play – any play of this particular British author – is a testament to the Aurora’s dedication to high-class dramaturgy, intellectual pursuits in theatre, and stage works of great entertainment value. The playwright of enormous talent and mental capacity, Stoppard never repeats himself, never gets old, and never seizes to amaze – be it his first play on the professional stage, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1964) or his first romantic comedy, The Real Thing (1982) believed to be based on his own life circumstances.
From the very beginning, the life of Tom Stoppard virtually begged for being depicted in literary works, but only in The Real Thing one is able to trace quite a bit of semblance to the author’s own situation. Born Tomas Straussler in former Czechoslovakia in 1937, at the age of 18 moths, the future playwright and his Jewish parents fled Europe escaping the Nazis, and settled in Singapore. After the beginning of the Japanese invasion, the family was evacuated to India. His father, a physician, who stayed behind to provide medical help, was killed by a bomb that hit his boat. The mother was later remarried to a British Army major, Kenneth Stoppard, who adopted Tom and his brother upon return to England.
Ascending from a provincial newspaper reporter and theater critic since the age of 17 (while not having any higher education) to an Order of Merit playwright knighted for his literary works, Tom Stoppard produced a slew of well-known and perennially popular plays, like The Real Inspector Hound (1968), Jumpers (1972), Travesties (1974), Enter a Free Man (1974), Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (1977), Night and Day (1978), Undiscovered Country (1979), On the Razzle (1981), Arcadia (1993), The Invention of Love (1997), The Coast of Utopia (2002), Rock ’n’ Roll (2006) – all thoroughly researched and wonderfully detailed in historical references, but hardly ever relevant to what was happening to and around Stoppard himself.
Even though he was quoted as saying, “I write out of my intellectual experiences” and denying any correlation between his personal history and his work, one can’t help but notice that The Real Thing protagonist, Henry (Elijah Alexander) is a playwright – as witty and skilled in language equilibristic as the author himself; as reasonable, logical and in favor of equilibrium in his political views as Stoppard is known to be; and just like him thoroughly entangled with actresses who play lead parts in his life and in his play (directed by Timothy Near).
In The Real Thing, Charlotte (Carrie Paff) leads in her husband Henry’s play about a dysfunctional marriage. Henry has an affair with Annie (Liz Sklar), also and actress, and Charlotte’s stage partner’s wife. Eventually it overwhelms both marriages, so that life starts imitating art. After Annie leaves her husband Max (Seann Gallagher) for Henry, he, the playwright of merit, who’s very serious about the usage of words, becomes an unwilling collaborator in her efforts to promote Brodie (Tommy Gorrebeeck), “the only political prisoner she knows” who expresses his political views through… a play of his own.
The personal approximation probably doesn’t make The Real Thing any more interesting than all other plays penned by Stoppard – the outstanding playwright, but it surely is able to evoke keener interest in the public, always curious to know “the real thing” about the author – the real emotion, the real visceral response to the real events of everyday life…
The Aurora ensemble that also Emily Radosevich as Debbie is delivering the dual reality of the play/life/play with various degrees of success. On the opening night, the initially spotted, part-hurried part-frozen performance of the first act became much smoother in the second act, with Mr. Alexander, Mr. Gallagher, and Mr. Gorrebeeck mostly pulling it all through with female leads following rather than leading the action that was written to give plenty of assertive stage presence to all parties, but to emphasize exactly the female story line.
It is this reviewer’s belief that the following shows demonstrate higher level of performance, void of any little mishaps, understandable and expected on the first stressful night, and that the play itself is definitely a timeless thing to be seen!
THE REAL THING plays through March 5th on Tuesdays at 7pm; Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8pm; Sundays at 2pm and 7pm (with added by popular demand performances on Saturday, February 25, 8 pm; Tuesday, February 28, 7pm; Wednesday, March 1, 8pm; Thursday, March 2, 8pm; Friday, March 3, 8pm; Saturday, March 4, 8pm; Sunday, March 5, 2pm, 7pm)
Aurora Theatre is located at 2081 Addison Street, Berkeley, CA.
For subscriptions and single tickets, call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org. Half-off tickets for under 35, student, and group discounts available.
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