Travesties
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Cititour.com Review
There are two ways to approach the highly intellectual, historically-based plays of Tom Stoppard: do copious research beforehand to make sure you get every allusion or let the master’s witty wordplay wash over you, worrying not what sails over your head. Admittedly, the former yields more fruitful results, but the latter can still result in bountiful delights, as is the case with Patrick Marber’s pitch-perfect revival of Stoppard’s 1974 delicacy “Travesties,” now at the Roundabout’s American Airlines Theatre.
This complex yet vaudevillian-like play takes us to Zurich Switzerland towards the end of World War I, as well as a half century later where the slightly daffy Henry Carr (magnificently portrayed by the endearing Tom Hollander) reminisces about his time there as a British diplomat. Tim Hatley’s brilliant unit set, a large room surrounded by mountains of books and papers, serves equally well as both the local library and Carr’s residence, as well as a metaphor for the mess of the elderly Carr’s brain.
Back in 1917, however, Carr leads a rather foppish existence, worried far more about the cut of his trousers and the vintage of the champagne served by his butler Bennett (an excellent Patrick Kerr) than any affairs of state. Still, Carr somehow manages to cross paths with three of the most celebrated figures of the day: the Dadaist artist Tristan Tzara (the astounding, physically limber Seth Numrich), who emerges from Henry’s closet like a magician and pulls fractured poems out of his hat; the great Irish writer James Joyce (a superb Peter McDonald), quick with a pun and limerick, yet endlessly struggling to finish writing “Ulysses,” and Vladimir Ilych Ulanov (the wonderful Dan Butler), a Russian revolutionary with a raffish, romantic streak who, of course, turns out to change the course of history (as well as his last name to Lenin).
Also on hand are Lenin’s no-nonsense wife Nadia (the superb Opal Alladin), Carr’s beautiful sister Gwendolyn (the divine Scarlett Strallen), and local librarian and semi-secret Bolshevik Cecily (the delicious Sara Topham). Each woman is drawn with style and savvy (and costumed perfectly by Hatley) and each turns out to be far less minor players in the grand scheme of things than you might originally imagine.
And yes, if those last two names remind you of Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest,” that’s definitely on purpose. Not only does Joyce produce the play, starring Carr (resulting in a pair of ridiculous lawsuits), but many of the jokes in “Travesties” center around Wilde’s plot, including the faked identity of Jack/Ernest. Without any knowledge of “Earnest,” a viewer may not understand the ripples of laughter coming out of the mouths of his or her savvier seatmates, but Stoppard eventually explains enough of that play’s machinations that much of what has been seen and heard makes sense.
Meanwhile, the debates for which Stoppard has become best known rage on, most notably the argument about the true meaning of art (or whether it has any meaning at all), but without ever becoming dry or dreary. In fact, most of “Travesties” will leave you with a wide grin on your mouth, while still providing fodder for your brain. It’s almost more magical than pulling a rabbit (or poem) out of your hat.
By Brian Scott Lipton
Visit the Site
https://www.roundabouttheatre.org
Cast
Tom Hollander, Seth Numrich, Scarlett Strallen, Opal Alladin, Rosalyn Coleman, Richard Hollis, Peter McDonald, Dan Butler, Patrick Kerr, Pete Bradbury, Sarah Killough
Open/Close Dates
Opening 4/24/2018
Closing 6/17/2018
Theatre Info
American Airlines Theatre
227 West 42nd Street
New York, NY 10036
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