"'The Real Thing' is a rare thing . . . an elegant comedy of infidelity," said New York Times writer Ben Brantley.
He was right.
Tom Stoppard's highly acclaimed "The Real Thing" may not be the same magnitude of "Shakespeare in Love" (also written by Stoppard) but features just as much high-class raunchiness.
"The Real Thing" opened at the Herberger Theatre Center in Phoenix on Nov. 2, and plays through Nov. 18. Not everyone would enjoy the thought-provoking, brain-requiring humor, but one thing is for sure — "The Real Thing" is not boring.
The play explores love via wit and wisdom. It takes the five main characters a lot of the former to gain the latter.
One such character is played by ASU student Lauren Chapman, who has been in numerous Lyric Opera Theatre productions. Chapman portrays the wild 1980s teen daughter of sarcastic, sharp-tongued, but well-intentioned theater parents.
Chapman adds youth and sparkle to an already shining play. She is only in a few scenes, but her character is important to the story line, and Chapman executes the role of a sassy, wild, but intelligent and kind teenager gloriously.
Her character, Debbie, does nothing to tone down the sarcasm and bite of her parents, but her presence brings the divorced pair together for family meetings and holidays. Their cynicism expands and intensifies in each other's company. The insults fly, but there is clearly love between the three.
Chapman joins a strong cast of Valley-based talent. She is by far the youngest, but radiated just as much believable experience as her older cast members.
That believability was important to the script, which required the actors to articulately declare opinions (sometimes in the form of rants) about adultery, theatre, radical politics and sex.
Critics are hailing "The Real Thing" as one of Stoppard's best pieces in a long, successful career, which started in 1966 with "Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are Dead."
Stoppard's advanced humor may take a while to warm up to. But once pulled in, audience members won't want to go back. Going home and watching Cheech and Chong just wouldn't feel right after being exposed to such titillating humor as that expelled from the small cast of "The Real Thing."
These perfectly cast characters explore dark, yet easy-to-relate-to feelings of jealousy, inadequacy, vulnerability and loyalty. The issues are dealt with in depth, but do not bring the audience down.
In fact, the opening night crowd could not have laughed any harder. They also enjoyed the upbeat soundtrack that played between and during acts. It was mostly comprised of 1950's and 60's pop tunes which the cultured and pretentious main character is ashamed to enjoy.
But he does.
He loves the simple, innocent, energetic music, and the audience did too.
The end of the play exposes viewers to more cynicism than they probably thought they could handle, yet makes them smile, rather than scoff.
It's just life anyway, right? There's not much more of a "real thing" than that.
