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by Tom Stoppard, directed by Diana Leblanc

Soulpepper Theatre Company/National arts Centre,

Young Centre, Toronto

June 10-July 29, 2006

Soulpepper’s current production of Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing is superb in every way.  The acting, direction and design all combine to present this highly intellectual comedy from 1982 with precision and feeling.  The title initially refers to love since a man and woman break up their respective marriages because they think they have found the ‘real thing” with each other.  Yet, this is only the starting point for Stoppard’s investigation using various plays-within-plays of our perception of reality in general, whether in the theatre, politics or personal emotion.  What interests Stoppard is how thoroughly fiction influences our perception of reality.

Albert Schultz plays Henry, a successful West End playwright who uses his Noel Coward-like wit as a defense against expressing emotion.  He breaks up with his equally witty actress wife Charlotte (the excellent Kristina Nicoll) to take up with another actress Annie (Megan Follows).  The great virtue of Diana Leblanc’s direction is how clearly she emphasizes Henry’s moral education as the throughline in a play that can seem like a series of clever set pieces.  Schultz delineates Henry’s change with great subtlety as he gradually comes to accept that life is messier than his absolutist views have allowed.  Follows is outstanding in expressing what is said and unsaid in “real” love that accommodates both fallibility and forgiveness.                

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2006-06-22.

Photo: Albert Schultz and Megan Follows.