‘The Real Thing’ at Katonah Classic Stage

By DAVID POGUE 

Tom Stoppard, who died a year ago at age 88, was one whoppingly prolific and successful British playwright/screenwriter. “Shakespeare in Love,” for which he co-wrote the screenplay, won seven Oscars. His plays won plenty of awards, too. They tend to be high-concept affairs, full of wordplay and biting wit — but, according to some critics, they’re more head than heart.

“The Real Thing” won the 1984 Tony Award for Best Play. PHOTOS COURTESY OF KATONAH CLASSIC STAGE

“The Real Thing,” a play that won the 1984 Tony Award for Best Play, feels like Stoppard’s answer to those critics. From the very first line, it’s about love and the heartbreak that comes with it. No wonder it’s one of Stoppard’s most popular and most revived plays, and no wonder it’s Katonah Classic Stage’s choice for its fall 2026 production. It’s playing through Sunday, Nov. 1, in Armonk (katonahclassicstage.com).

The story concerns Henry, a middle-aged British playwright with a reputation for devastating wit and linguistic exactitude, and the three actors/friends in his orbit. We’ll eventually get to know Charlotte, his first wife; Annie, his second and younger wife; and Max, Annie’s first husband. 

And if you’re having trouble tracking those spousal permutations, you’re forgiven; there’s a good bit of cheating, divorce, and remarriage along the way. 

(This play clearly contains some autobiographical Stoppardian elements. Not only was Stoppard a British playwright with a reputation for linguistic exactitude, but he, too, began an affair with another man’s wife. In fact, the woman was the actress who had originally played Annie. After several years with Stoppard, she eventually returned to her husband. Hmm. Could be good fodder for a play.)

In the opening scene, we see Charlotte return from a “trip to Switzerland,” which her husband, Max, drunk and sarcastic, has figured out was a lie. In fact, she slipped away to cheat on him for the weekend. 

In the second scene, we realize that the first scene was, in fact, a performance of a play that Henry has written. It’s a clever twist for us, the audience, and only the first of many times we’ll wonder what, in fact, is the real thing. 

In the North Castle Library’s comfy 186-seat theater, every seat is close to the action and the actors don’t need microphones, which is part of the magic of professional local theater. 

But just because it’s easy to understand what the actors are saying doesn’t mean it’s always easy to figure out what they mean. Stoppard’s lines are often too clever to parse. “I thought you liked me showing an interest in your work,” Max says. “My showing. Save the gerund and screw the whale. Yes, I’m sure you do.” What?

Or how about this line of Henry’s? “Perhaps the authorities saw that it was a touch meretricious. Meretrix, meretricis. Harlot.” Whatever you say, dude.

“The Real Thing” is in its final weekend.

The 1980s British references don’t help, either. You’re expected to recognize terms like Buck’s fizz, Little Barmouth, “Rosie of the Royal Infirmary,” Miranda Jessop, Henry of Mayfair, Chips Rafferty, and “’Tis Pity She’s a Whore.” 

But this much is for sure: the acting going on in Armonk is en fuego. The four leads are Equity union professionals with New York or even Broadway credits, including Jeremiah Wiggins (Max), Katie Fabel (Annie), Brenda Withers (Charlotte), and KCS Artistic Director Trent Dawson (playing Henry, and showing that as a director, he can take it as well as dish it out). These performances are the best reason to see the show.

Their British (and Irish) accents are convincing, their understanding of the material is deep, and Director Jonathan Fielding keeps the action moving and the emotional stakes high. 

There are subplots. One involves a political activist (Cian Genaro) who’s caught Annie’s eye (and whose terrible attempt at writing a play disgusts Henry and cracks up the audience). Another involves Billy (Jay Edward Clarke), Annie’s castmate who may or may not be yet another one of her lovers. Then there’s Henry and Charlotte’s daughter (Abby Burris), whose one brief scene doesn’t, alas, add much.

But if you squint, “The Real Thing” is really about the evolution of Henry’s view of love. Early on, he observes that he doesn’t even know how to write about it. “I try to write it properly, and it just comes out embarrassing,” he says. “It’s either childish or it’s rude.”

But Henry discovers that Charlotte, while married to him, had cheated. Nine times. He’s aghast. 

Then Henry, deeply unsettled, discovers something about his current wife Annie that makes the ground shift beneath his feet. Henry unravels before our eyes, his smug academic linguistic armor vaporizing. Dawson’s performance in this scene is gut-wrenching; you want to run onstage and hug him before he disintegrates completely. The scene feels so real that it will haunt you. 

Henry’s actual reaction, of course, is nothing like the parallel development that we saw in the opening scene’s play-within-a-play. Henry is discovering that writing a play about love and heartbreak is nothing like the real thing.