Episode 085: The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard

Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Mark Lawson

Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We’ll discuss the play’s origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing.

Tom Stoppard is renowned for his intellectual wit and playful dramatic form, both of which are certainly on show in The Real Thing, but the play also explores more personal emotional territory: on what constitutes the real thing in love, politics and art.

As we record this episode, a new production of the play is on stage at the Old Vic theatre in London. My guest to help us navigate the romantic entanglements and structural twists in the play is the renowned arts journalist, Mark Lawson.