Feb 8, 2008

Knowing if it's 'The Real Thing'?

Play attempts to rectify differences between head and heart, fiction and reality

By John Angell Grant / Theater Reviewer

Would you ever snoop through the private papers of your spouse, looking for clues of infidelity?

The characters in English playwright Tom Stoppard's entertaining 1982 dramatic comedy "The Real Thing" do. The show is running in an absorbing and successful local production at Bus Barn Stage Company in Los Altos.

"The Real Thing" focuses on the marital triangles of a yuppie London theater couple and their friends. It's assumed to be an autobiographical story about Stoppard himself. That gives the show an intriguing gossipy element, like People magazine for literary folk.

In this play's world of evolving love triangles, who is the dumper and who is the dumpee? That's not always immediately clear, as "The Real Thing" contains Stoppard's trademark sleight of hand.

The story focuses on newly successful playwright Henry, and the women he's close to as they slide in and out of fidelity. "The Real Thing" is about how everyone reacts to changes brought on by shifting love triangles, and how they handle those changes.

These aren't people with any explicit arrangement about extramarital philandering. They just figure it all out as they go.

Director Barbara Cannon has cast the show well, and given it a good staging. She is ably supported by scenic designer Ron Gasparinetti, who has created two realistic English drawing rooms that rotate on a circular platform, changing between scenes.

The episodes of infidelity in "The Real Thing" catch unwitting spouses off guard. Stonewalling ensues. Who is telling the truth, and who isn't?

In moments of theatrical trompe l'oeil, some encounters turn out to be scenes from Henry's plays that friends are performing in.

Triangle participants must choose whether to break philandering bad news to a spouse, or to live a lie. Later, unfaithful spouses have to decide whether to stay together or not. In the process, they learn something about what trust means and what love means.

Twenty-something years ago, I saw the London West End production of "The Real Thing" starring Roger Rees and Felicity Kendal. The current Bus Barn production holds up well, with strong acting across the board.

The local performers ably handle their British accents. Matthew Purdon creates an appropriately arrogant and self-absorbed playwright Henry. As Stoppard's alter ego, this character turns out to be pompous and rather unsympathetic, although he seems at least to know that about himself.

Chloe Bronzan is credible as the actress he falls in love with. Her apparently radical politics create conflict in the relationship.

Excellent Palo Alto High School student Maddie Sykes is the brightest light on stage as Henry's rebellious 17-year-old daughter. This is a talky play, and she gives her dad an amusing lecture about love and sex that teaches him a few things.

Other strong performances come from Tom Gough as actor friend Max, and from Deb Anderson as actress Charlotte, another important woman in Henry's life.

"The Real Thing" attempts to map the emotional complexities of marriage and philandering in one particular set of romantic love triangles. Although the play's political story twist at the end is facile, as though Stoppard wasn't quite sure how to navigate out of the romantic morass he had created, the show is an absorbing ride.

If you enjoy contemporary British literary theater, you won't want to miss this one.

Rating: Three and a half stars

E-mail John Angell Grant at jagplays@dailynewsgroup.com.