Tom Stoppard Toys With Romantic Comedy

MEDIA RELEASE for immediate release
6th July 2007

Tom Stoppard Toys With Romantic Comedy

Silo Theatre presents
THE REAL THING

Revered stage and screen writer Tom Stoppard’s multiple award-winning play THE REAL THING opens at Silo Theatre on August 31st bringing with it a fine stable of talent to the stage including Claire Chitham, Theresa Healey and Stephen Lovatt. In true Stoppard style THE REAL THING explores the emotional complexity of relationships in a darkly romantic tale peppered with touches of delicious voyeurism.

Czech born Stoppard has been omnipresent in the fields of stage and screen since his debut in 1966 with one of his most famous works, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. His quick cut banter and sharp wordplay also were the basis for the 1993 hit Arcadia and his latest work, Rock ‘n’ Roll, set in Prague where music became symbolic to resistance from the Communist regime, which played to capacity attendance in the West End last year. In 2007, his nine hour epic The Coast of Utopia set a record for the most awards won by a play in Tony Award history, in a production featuring Ethan Hawke, Billy Crudup, Martha Plimpton and Jennifer Ehle.

Arguably his biggest claim to fame would be the screenplay for Oscar winner Shakespeare in Love, as well as contributing scripts towards successful Hollywood movies as Enigma, Empire of the Sun and the upcoming Matt Damon vehicle The Bourne Ultimatum. Stoppard is also rumored to be writing the next James Bond script.

THE REAL THING is loosely autobiographical and uses a playful theatrical structure which teases the audience into considering what is reality and what is art…

Henry (Stephen Lovatt) is a playwright. Afflicted by detachment and obsessed with pop music, he’s always ready to finish other people’s sentences with an apposite witticism. Despite this, he struggles to make sense of that most elusive of human emotions – love.

When an incandescent actress (Claire Chitham) casts him as the philandering husband, he’s forced to enact a situation he’s previously been content merely to write about. Suddenly, sophistication can’t save him: jealousy, tenderness and vulnerability aren’t merely his dramatic stock in trade, but genuinely powerful forces that obstruct rational thought and make him undignifiedm delicate and ultimately, human.

Internationally, THE REAL THING has attracted a slew of popular screen actors including British institution Felicity Kendal, Australia’s Hugo Weaving and Hollywood legends Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons. Last performed at the Mercury Theatre in 1984, this contemporary classic will feature Claire Chitham (Outrageous Fortune, Shortland Street), Theresa Healey (Dancing with the Stars) and former Neighbours star Stephen Lovatt taking to the stage for his Silo Theatre debut.

THE REAL THING, laced with acerbic humour and ironic paradoxes is destined to become the theatrical highlight of 2007.

“…The Real Thing reminds you why you go to the theatre and why you fall in love. And why, just sometimes, it is all worth the effort…”
- Michael Billington, The Guardian

THE REAL THING plays
31st August – 29th September 2007
Directed by Shane Bosher, featuring Claire Chitham, Stephen Lovatt, Theresa Healey, Cameron Rhodes, Paul Ellis, Michelle Blundell and Brian Rankin
Monday and Tuesdays at 7pm. Wednesday – Saturday 8pm. No performances on Sundays.
Bookings through Ticketmaster on 09 970 9700 or www.ticketmaster.co.nz
Tickets: $20 - $35 (booking fees may apply)

ENDS

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