The Real Thing

Diving through layers of play and performance, reality and deceit, The Real Thing is Tom Stoppard’s kaleidoscopic comedy of love, infidelity and the stories we tell.

Starring James McArdle (Mare of Easttown) and Bel Powley (A Small Light, The Morning Show), and directed by Max Webster (Macbeth, Life of Pi), the Old Vic presents this fresh production of one of Tom Stoppard’s most celebrated plays.

Annie is an actress, Henry is a playwright, and fiction is the backdrop to life. Hardly a recipe for a faithful marriage, especially when it started as an affair. But does it matter how it began if what they have is the real thing?

Laced with wit and packed with emotion, the play explores the passions and problems of love and fidelity and our perceptions and understanding of ‘truth’ and ‘reality’.