{"id":692,"date":"2008-11-07T02:51:06","date_gmt":"2008-11-07T06:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mookse.wordpress.com\/?p=692"},"modified":"2017-09-26T20:42:07","modified_gmt":"2017-09-27T00:42:07","slug":"tom-stoppards-the-real-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2008\/11\/07\/tom-stoppards-the-real-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Stoppard: The Real Thing<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Real Thing<\/em><\/strong> <\/span>
\nby Tom Stoppard (1982) <\/span>
\nFaber & Faber (1982) <\/span>
\n112 pp<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"the-real-thing\"<\/p>\n

[fusion_dropcap boxed=”no” boxed_radius=”” class=”” id=”” color=”#003366″]W[\/fusion_dropcap]hile this blog has primarily reviewed novels (and will continue to do so), I thought it might be a nice change of pace to throw in a play every now and then (and maybe a book of poetry, just for kicks). I don’t pretend to be really\u00a0knowledgeable about plays, especially the acting side, but I have studied modern drama and theory\u00a0in a few all-too-short classes, and there was a time in my life when I was able to attend the theater twice a week (being a student in London has major perks), so I at least have been exposed to it enough to know I enjoy talking about it. Perhaps that time when I can go to the theater twice a week will come again.\u00a0I hope so, for seeing a play acted out by a superior acting company is much better than merely reading its script, or, for that matter,\u00a0seeing the movie if one has been made.<\/p>\n

With Tom Stoppard, however, I have often found that watching\u00a0and<\/em> reading is a necessity\u00a0to fully appreciate his work. Often, to watch his play is to engage in a metaphysical activity in real-time. There is nothing quite like it. However, much like, say, Hamlet<\/em>, to truly engage with Stoppard’s work it is almost necessary to examine the text — at least that is the case for me. While The Real Thing<\/em> is perhaps one of his more straightforward plays, it also pays to visit the text itself. Had I\u00a0not read The Real\u00a0Thing<\/em>,\u00a0I would never have seen how adept Stoppard is at using the formal aspects of his play to construct\u00a0and elaborate this play’s large themes.<\/p>\n

As I said above, The Real Thing <\/em>is basically straightforward, though it takes a few minutes to understand the relationship between the main characters: Max and Charlotte, and\u00a0Henry and Annie. The play begins with Max and Charlotte. As is typical with Stoppard, part of the fun is seeing how he sets the stage before the dialogue begins.<\/p>\n

MAX\u00a0doesn’t have to be physically impressive, but you wouldn’t want him for an enemy. CHARLOTTE doesn’t have to be especially attractive, but you immediately want her for a friend.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Max is building a house of cards on a drawing table. Charlotte shuts the door and the cards tumble. It’s a rough scene that follows when Max, with biting wit,\u00a0accuses Charlotte of having an affair. Hurt, she leaves. The scene shifts. However, so does the characterization:<\/p>\n

HENRY is amiable but can take care of himself. CHARLOTTE is less amiable and can take even better care of herself. MAX is nice, seldom assertive, conciliatory. ANNIE is very much like the woman whom CHARLOTTE has ceased to be.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This strange shift in the characters of Max and Charlotte becomes apparent quickly. The first scene, it turns out, was a play. In reality (but this is kind of the fun part), Charlotte is married to Henry, who wrote the play. Max is married to Annie. Max and Annie have come to visit Charlotte and Henry. While there, Annie and Henry begin to bicker about her involvement in what he considers to be a sentimental activist group.<\/p>\n

The characters shift again, however. Henry and Annie end up alone and we find out that there fight was not real. They were merely acting. In reality (there’s that word again), Henry and Annie are having an affair. As the play moves to the close of Act I, Charlotte and Max find out about the affair and leave their spouses, allowing Henry and Annie to be together, though Annie questions how strongly Henry feels toward her since he doesn’t seem to be jealous:<\/p>\n

ANNIE:\u00a0You don’t love me the way I love you. I’m just a relief after Charlotte, and a novelty.<\/span><\/p>\n

HENRY:\u00a0You’re a novelty all right.\u00a0I never met<\/em> anyone so silly.\u00a0I love you.\u00a0I don’t know why you’re behaving like this.<\/span><\/p>\n

ANNIE:\u00a0I’m behaving normally.\u00a0It’s you who’s abnormal. You don’t care enough to care<\/span><\/em>.\u00a0Jealousy is normal.<\/span><\/p>\n

HENRY:\u00a0I thought you said you weren’t<\/em> jealous.<\/span><\/p>\n

ANNIE:\u00a0Well, why aren’t you<\/span><\/em> ever jealous?<\/span><\/p>\n

HENRY:\u00a0Of whom?<\/span><\/p>\n

ANNIE:\u00a0Of anybody.\u00a0You don’t care if Gerald Jones sticks his tongue in my ear — which, incidentally, he does whenever he gets the chance.<\/span><\/p>\n

HENRY:\u00a0Is that what this is all about?<\/span><\/p>\n

ANNIE:\u00a0It’s insulting the way you just laugh.<\/span><\/p>\n

HENRY:\u00a0But you’ve got no interest in him.<\/span><\/p>\n

ANNIE:\u00a0I know that, but why should you assume it?<\/span><\/p>\n

HENRY:\u00a0Because you haven’t. This is stupid.<\/span><\/p>\n

ANNIE:\u00a0But why don’t you mind<\/span><\/em>?<\/span><\/p>\n

HENRY:\u00a0I do.<\/span><\/p>\n

ANNIE:\u00a0No, you don’t.<\/span><\/p>\n

HENRY:\u00a0That’s true, I don’t.\u00a0Why is<\/em> that?\u00a0It’s because I feel superior.\u00a0There he is, poor bugger, picking up the odd crumb of ear wax from the rich man’s table.\u00a0You’re right.\u00a0I don’t mind.\u00a0I like it.\u00a0I like the way his presumption admits his poverty.\u00a0I like him, knowing that that’s all there is, because you’re coming home to me and we don’t want anyone else.\u00a0I love love.\u00a0I love having a lover and being one. The insularity of passion. I love it. I love the way it blurs the distinction between everyone who isn’t one’s lover. Only two kinds of presence in the world. There’s you and there’s them.\u00a0I love you so.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don’t want to give away too much here, but I have to set the stage for Act II, just because I think it’s what makes this play so brilliant.\u00a0It’s been a few years, and Henry and Annie are still together. But whatever romance or passion they first experienced is no longer there. During a visit at her home, Henry is confronted by Charlotte who tells him that she had multiple affairs during their marriage.<\/p>\n

CHARLOTTE:\u00a0And look what your one did compared to my nine.<\/span><\/p>\n

HENRY:\u00a0Nine?<\/span><\/p>\n

CHARLOTTE:\u00a0Feel betrayed?<\/span><\/p>\n

HENRY:\u00a0Surprised.\u00a0I thought we’d made a commitment.<\/span><\/p>\n

CHARLOTTE:\u00a0There are no commitments, only bargains. And they have to be made again every day. You think making a commitment is it<\/em>.\u00a0Finish.\u00a0You think it sets like a concrete platform and it’ll take any strain you want to put on it.\u00a0You’re committed. You don’t have to prove anything. In fact you can afford a little neglect, indulge in a little bit of sarcasm here and there, isolate yourself when you want to. Underneath it’s concrete for life. I’m a cow in some ways, but you’re an idiot. Were<\/em> an idiot.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Henry, filled with jealousy, returns home to confront Annie, sure she is having an affair.<\/p>\n

And somehow, in this wonderful play, I learned a lot about what makes relationships continue, what makes them worthwhile, what makes them real, how to let the “mask slip from the face.”\u00a0This might sound incredibly romantic and maybe even idealistic. I don’t think that it is, however. It’s not all pretty, and it’s not all “love will overcome all.” Not at all.\u00a0It’s much better than that.\u00a0But, fortunately, we get some of Stoppard’s nice romantic lines (even if the line is tinged with a bit of failure):<\/p>\n

Well, I remember, the first time I succumbed to the sensation that the universe was dispensable minus one lady–<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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