The Real Thing

This intellectually and emotionally engaging backstage comedy portrays an articulate and romantically idealistic playwright whose second wife is trying to merge worthy causes with her art as an actress. She has net a "political prisoner" named Brodie who has been jailed for radical thuggery, and who has written an inept play about how property is theft, how the state stifles the rights of the individual, etc., etc., etc

Henry's wife wants him to make the play work theatrically, which he does after much soul searching. Eventually, though, he is able to convince his wife that Brodie is emphatically not a victim of political repression; he is, in fact, a thug. And while this hilariously transpires, Henry's concepts of love, marriage and fidelity are tested as surely as his writing skills. Jeremy Irons triumphed in the original Broadway production

"So packed with wit, ideas and feelings ... Stoppard's most moving play and the most bracing play anyone has written about love and marriage in years" ~ N.Y. Times

"Shimmering, dazzling theatre, a play of uncommon wit and intelligence which not only thoroughly delights but challenges and illuminates our lives" ~ WCBS TV