The Real Thing - West End Tickets, News, Info & More
‘There are no commitments, only bargains.’
Annie is an actress, Henry is a playwright, and fiction is the backdrop to life. Hardly a recipe for a faithful marriage, especially when it started as an affair.
But does it matter how it began if what they have is the real thing?
Diving through layers of play and performance, reality and deceit, The Real Thing is Tom Stoppard’s kaleidoscopic comedy of love, infidelity and the stories we tell. Starring James McArdle (Mare of Easttown, The Tragedy of Macbeth) and Bel Powley (A Small Light, The Morning Show), and directed by Max Webster (Macbeth, Life of Pi).
__Assisted Performances:__
Audio Described, 11 Oct, 7.30pm (Touch Tour, 5.30pm)
Relaxed, (audio described, captioned and BSL interpreted) 12 Oct, 2.30pm
Captioned, 14 Oct, 7.30pm
BSL Interpreted, 17 Oct, 7.30pm
The Real Thing - West End Cast
FEATURED REVIEWS FOR The Real Thing
The Real Thing review — hang in there, Tom Stoppard’s greatest play is worth it
7 / 10
The longer it goes on, the more this production finds a plangent tone where the witty, the wise and the wounded are forever colliding. “No, it was about self-knowledge through pain,” the humbled Henry chides when his equally outspoken daughter accuses him of having written just another story of jiggery-pokery among the architect classes. Here, as elsewhere in this invigorating evening, many a true word is spoken in jest.
Review: THE REAL THING, The Old Vic
4 / 10
Symposiums (or symposia, as the Pedants’ Pedant, Henry, would no doubt instantly inform me from beneath his half-hearted mullet) are the places to explore ideas about writing. Stages should be reserved for characters we believe in, in whom we can invest hopes and fears, maybe even grow to like - after all, we’re lumped together for two and a half hours, so let’s get along hey? Such thoughts filled my head, as the play I witnessed seemed barely worthy of praise, never mind the avalanche of plaudits that have come its way since its premiere 42 years ago and consequent to its many revivals since. Had I missed something? In pooh-poohing the assessments of so many fine judges, was I just being a bear of very little brain? Or had this soapy tale (albeit with longer words, but almost as much shouting) merely outlived its utility? Probably a bit of all three.
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Review Roundup: THE REAL THING at The Old Vic
by Chloe Rabinowitz - September 5, 2024
by Chloe Rabinowitz - September 5, 2024
See what the critics are saying about The Real Thing at The Old Vic! Read the reviews and learn more about the production.
Review: THE REAL THING, The Old Vic
by Gary Naylor - September 4, 2024
by Gary Naylor - September 4, 2024
Hard going with characters largely bereft of sympathetic virtues, delivering dialogue long on ideas, but short on heart
The Real Thing History
Other Productions of The Real Thing
| 1984 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 2000 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
| 2010 | West End |
Old Vic Production West End |
| 2014 | Broadway |
Roundabout Theatre Production Broadway |
| West End |
West End |
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