'The Real Thing''by Tom Stoppard

It is 1980.

The West End is thriving, in the era of the Royal Court and Agitprop theatre.

Digital watches are beginning to arrive from Japan and there are continuing protests about US military bases on UK soil.

The principal characters are comfortably, though artily, middle class.Exploring the concept of a play within a play, The Real Thing opens with Max and Charlotte, whose marriage we are shown to be on the point of disintegration, but nothing is as it seems.

This is not the real thing for Charlotte is, in reality, really married to Henry, the playwright of a play about marriage.

However, Henry and Charlottes own marriage is fracturing in real time; Henry has fallen in love with Annie, Max's wife, who is also an actress.

But, how real can this be?Stoppard explores this as Henry and Annies relationship develops.

When Annie becomes mentor to an anarchistic soldier convicted for damaging the Cenotaph, she encourages him to write a play and persuades Henry to edit/rewrite it.

How real can a political passion be when repackaged in his sharp, over-precise language?Described in a contemporary review when the play premiered in 1982 as interweaving the mind games of Pirandello with the sheer joy of shared passion.

The Real Thing is a rare thing; an intelligent play about love.ON SALE TO MEMBERS FROM 21 JULY 2026 AND ON SALE TO GENERAL PUBLIC FROM 28 JULY 2026