Dallas Theater Center play features professor
Issues of love and literature meet and marry onstage at The Dallas Theater Center in Tom Stoppard’s “The Real Thing.”
Stoppard, the co-writer of “Shakespeare in Love,” spins the tale of a playwright and his relationship with his actors, his feelings about writing as an art form and his behavior in marriage.
Martin Kildare plays the role of Henry, the playwright. His unrelentingly sarcastic wife Charlotte is played by Julia Gibson.
Sparks fly as the pair match wits about the other’s shortcomings. Though Henry’s wit is quick as a cheetah and just as ferocious, Charlotte manages to steal every scene.
SMU theater professor James Crawford appears as Max, an actor in one of Henry’s productions.
It’s amazing to watch Crawford’s changes in character when he is acting as Max and when Max is acting.
The character layers are clear as Crawford’s character is different for each role that he plays.
Max’s wife Annie is played by Katie MacNichol. Annie has an affair with Henry, devastating her husband.
She shows no remorse as he cries to her, and in the next scene she and Henry are happily cavorting through his new apartment.
However, Annie is a serial adulteress and eventually has an affair with an actor in her company.
Intertwined in the relationship turmoil is Annie’s push with Henry to rewrite a play by a political prisoner.
Annie’s motives are questionable and Henry isn’t receptive to the idea.
She accuses him of being an elitist because he’s a better writer than the prisoner.
He then presents a beautiful argument about the strength and importance of words and the beauty of literature as an art.
It’s difficult to sum up the play because it covers so many topics so gracefully.
Power, parental relationships, art, comedy, passion and ideas about marriage explode from the stage.
“The Real Thing” is presented by the Dallas Theater Center and will play at the Kalita Humphreys Center from Jan. 15 through Feb. 9.
Tickets for students and faculty are available for $10 with valid ID.
