Unlike many plays from the 1980s Tom Stoppard’s masterpiece is still worth reviving because it focuses on the timeless theme of the damage caused by emotional violence rather than the physical traumas in Thatcher’s broken Britain.
Sure, there is a subplot revolving round a daft young actress taking up the case of a ‘wronged’ solider, but the real focus is on the Hampstead set ripping each apart with surgical precision.
Henry is a famous playwright who deploys devastating wit in place of emotional intelligence, and most critics think it is a thinly veiled self portrait of Stoppard.
He has fallen in love with the vapid aspiring actress Annie thus cuckolding his friend Max, and trashing the lives of his put upon actress wife Charlotte and his teenage daughter.
Unfortunately for the bombastic Henry his new love is a self absorbed idiot, who then gives him a taste of his own medicine shattering his fragile ego.
The real interest in this play is that unlike all contemporaries Stoppard writes from the centre right, so Henry rightly sneers at the socialist pretentions of posh girl Annie and is a dig at tedious Trot thespians like Vanessa Redgrave.
His alter ego Henry is also contemptuous of what he dubs ‘Trotsy Playhouse’ on the BBC, but misses the point that a work like Boys From The Blackstuff is far more timeless and better written than this work.
Gerald Kyd is well cast as Henry ranging effortlessly through a range of emotions delivering the playwright’s witty asides, and arguments for the power of words, with consummate timing.
Equally good as Annie is Marianne Oldham, who doesn’t quite convey the beauty that captivates Henry but nails the fact that she doesn’t care about the damage her self love causes those around her. Rebecca Hall was born to play this role.
For those of us who recently had to sit through the outdated feminism of Top Girls from the same period it is a timely reminder that quality wordplay of this order will always find an audience. Throw in a top quality cast, and it becomes a revival well worth checking out.
• Photo courtesy of Keith Pattison
• The Real Things runs until 26 May and tickets can be reserved by calling West Yorkshire Playhouse Box Office on 0113 213 7700 or by visiting www.wyp.org.uk