“Henry (Pearson) is the smartest, sharpest and most wickedly witty playwright of his generation. But writing about betrayal is one thing – living with it is another. When Henry starts to blur the boundaries of life and art, things suddenly get rather sticky. Now it’s real and Henry is about to learn a tough lesson about true love”.

The Real Thing is quite simply a play which causes the greatest deal of thought and talk from an audience after the show. With something written by Stoppard, “one of our finest writes who wrote Shakespeare In Love” you needed to have a brilliant cast as the words alone spark so much emotion, joy and laughter. However we seem to have one at the Old Vic!

The play follows the lives of two couples mainly centred round Henry the playwright. The stunning opening scene is one which will give you the sixth sense twist moment and sets the feel for the first act….comedic. That first act is riotously funny, with brilliantly witty jokes and lines being delivered to perfect comic timing. Pearson’s history in Drop The Dead Donkey gives him the perfect leg up for comedy, and his timing is never off. Infact his whole performance is never off, always totally believable as a romantic at heart, and intellectual playwright who is getting the best out of his life, he lives and breathes the role showing total characterisation. The same can be said for the rest of the cast who on the whole don’t ever fail to hit the mark. There are moments where they simply aren’t believable but thankfully those moments are few and far between.

The witty and engaging story by Stoppard takes a turn in the second act and fails to deliver the jokes, which were such a strong part of Act 1. At point the play lags and can cause areas of boredom within the audience, but the writing still holds strong, pushing its way through allowing you to leave having really enjoyed the well written, hugely entertaining and inventive play

A great added dimension is the soundtrack of 60’s pop, which the play is set to. Ending each scene with a song can make it even more humorous or heartbreaking and works brilliantly, especially when its not just there to sound good, it is there for a reason….one which I’ll leave you to discover. It also allows you to watch the profoundly choreographed set changes complete with moving walls and floors. Those sets are always pristine in the situation and are brilliantly life like.

The Real Thing is an engaging and witty play, which will make you look at love and the search for happiness in a new way. Stunning writing, stunningly performed The Real Thing and its cast is an unprecedented theatrical success. Unparalleled in its jokes and story, I can’t urge you enough to see this masterful play.