What do you get when you fall in love? Joy, pain, a sense of unreality and, if you're lucky, round-the-clock banking. But how do you know if it's The Real Thing (Donmar Warehouse)?
Unusually for Tom Stoppard, this dissection of an intense and troubled love affair between a playwright (Stephen Dillane) and an actress (Jennifer Ehle) is as notable for its emotional charge as it is for its witty arabesques. The too-clever-by-half feeling one is usually left with after an evening of Stoppard is here replaced by the genuine sensation of having been transported body and soul, to another place. This is the essence of all great drama.
Whether it's because the Donmar is a venue that invites intimacy, whether it's that director David Leveaux understands the play so well, or whether it's the charismatic performances is hard to say, butI had no idea The Real Thing was such a powerful play.... and so much more hearfelt than other Stoppard plays like Jumper, Travesties and Arcadia.
It's tempting, of course, to see Henry, the maddeningly cerebral playwright who finds that no amount of wit or insight can ease the pain of sexual jealousy, as a self-portrait. You can't take your eyes off Stephen Dillane - so good at showing smart-arse Henry descend miserably into faltering insecurity and rage - except when they're on the luminously beautiful Jennifer Ehle as Annie, giving what must surely be her best and most emotional performance to date.
There is also excellent support from Nigel Lindsay and Sarah Woodward as the respective partners who fall victim to Henry and Annie's all-consuming passion.
Sexy, soulful and at times side-splitting. The Real Thing is, in short,an affair to be savoured.
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