This House of Cards Crashes
‘Met him on a Monday and his name was Bill, a do ron ron ron a do ron ron…’ is how Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing opens in his tale of who’s doing who in a ménage à trois, quatre or even cinq, writes Michael Holland.
Max(Oliver Johnstone) builds a house of cards as he awaits the return of his wayward partner Charlotte (Susan Wokoma) from a business trip that Max knows was actually a tryst with her lover. She enters and the cards crash to the ground in a tumble of metaphors.
Cut to playwright Henry (James McCardle) stressing out to his partner over an upcoming invite to Desert Island Discs where he has to choose a number of records that he would want to be castaway with and doesn’t want the world to know his musical tastes only reach as high as cheesey pop. First World Problems already at their peak here.
Annie(Bel Powley) arrives and we soon find that she and Henry are lovers and Annie is on the verge of admitting everything to all concerned so they can be together. Annie is visually fizzing as she decides on her next move. The drama levels rise rapidly as we believe that at any moment now the whole sordid business will be made public and lives and relationships will come crashing down.
But she does nothing. The drama is replaced by a conflict between how men and women think differently told through witty dialogue and the odd rambling speech. Something that has been done many times before.
And, of course, it was done before by Stoppard when this award-winning play first opened in 1982, so we can’t blame him for it being resurrected for a modern audience who will not get all the references from those times.
But all is not lost, there is still the witty wordplay of Tom Stoppard, always a joy if sometimes too wordy, and the play within a play provides an excellent gotcha near the beginning. Plus, there is a little something to be said for the set(Peter McKintosh) even if it hardly changes.
Max Webster directs his cast as best he can when they have only to sit around talking most of the time, hence, perhaps, getting the stage crew to add some movement to proceedings during scene changes. Others arrive to join in the flaunting and flirting but, ultimately, I’m not sure if by the end anybody cared about who was doing who.
The Real Thing does show the tawdry business of infidelity but with this group of oh so clever people taking it all very well, cheating on a loved one hardly looks such a bad thing at all.
Old Vic, The Cut, SE1 until 26th October. Admission: £15 – £75.
Booking: www.oldvictheatre.com
