The Real Thing

Written by Tom Stoppard

Narrated by Simon Templeman, Andrea Bowen and Full cast

Henry may be the wittiest playwright of his generation, but he’s hopelessly naïve when it comes to understanding love and infidelity. Writing about betrayal is one thing, living with it is another. After Henry leaves his wife for another woman, he’s confronted with being the cuckold himself. Both dazzlingly clever and emotionally naked, Henry’s search for the “the real thing” in art and love demonstrates beautifully why both are worth the effort in the end.

Recorded in Los Angeles before a live audience at the Skirball Cultural Center in November 2008.

Directed by Rosalind Ayres
Producing Director Susan Albert Loewenberg
An L.A. Theatre Works Full-Cast Performance Featuring:
Andrea Bowen as Debbie
Matthew Gaydos as Brodie and TV Director
Carolyn Seymour as Charlotte
Simon Templeman as Henry
Douglas Weston as Max
Joanne Whalley as Annie
Matthew Wolf as Billy
Associate Producers: Jennifer Brooks and Christina Montaño
Recording Engineer/Sound Designer/Editor/Mixer: Mark Holden for The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood
Sound Effects Artist: Theresa Arrison
Music Supervisor: Scott Willis

• Language: English
• Publisher: L.A. Theatre Works
• Release date: Jun 15, 2009
• ISBN: 9781580815994

Tom Stoppard

Tom Stoppard was born "Tomás Straüssler" in Zlin, Czechoslovakia in 1937 and moved to England with his family in 1946. Catapulted into the front ranks of modern playwrights overnight when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead opened in London in 1967, he has become recognized as a contemporary comic master, the brilliantly acclaimed author of The Real Inspector Hound, Enter a Free Man, Albert's Bridge, After Magritte, Travesties, Dirty Linen, Jumpers, New-Found-Land, Night and Day, The Real Thing, Hapgood, Artist Descending a Staircase, Every Good Boy Deserves Favor, Arcadia, The Invention of Love, The Coast of Utopia (Voyage, Shipwreck, and Salvage), and Rock 'n' Roll. He has also written a number of screenplays, including The Romantic Englishwoman, Despair, and Brazil. In 2017, he was awarded the David Cohen Prize for a lifetime's achievement in literature.

Reviews for The Real Thing

[blackbelt2librarian · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow - what a great play. I was fortunate enough to see this on Broadway a few years back with the incomparable Jennifer Ehle.

[J Abdilla · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Phenomenal performance, pristine recording, and brilliant writing. First experience with Stoppard and can see why people rave so much about him.