No pretending ... it’s ‘The Real Thing’

April 20, 2007

Laura Ashley Lamm The Daily Southerner Fri Apr 20, 2007, 12:14 PM EDT

The Tar River Players are taking relationships and matters of the heart and bringing them to the forefront of audiences' minds.

Steering through their second season, The Tar River Players are performing Tom Stoppard's comedy, "The Real Thing" which examines the nature of honesty and infidelity.

Stoppard, a British playwright, is famous for "The Real Thing," as well as his screenplay, "Shakespeare in Love," which won him an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1998.

First performed in 1982, "The Real Thing" received London's Evening Standard Award for Best Play of 1982. In 1984, it also received a Tony Award for Best Play.

Set in London in the 1980s, "The Real Thing" is a play within a play, which delves into the relationship between Henry, a playwright, and Annie, an actress who is part of a committee to free the Scottish solider Brodie, who is imprisoned for burning a memorial wreath during a protest.

"We have play committee selection meetings and somehow we loved the play so much we decided to give it a shot. It is more ambitious and more adventurous than other plays we have done before," said Director Brian Lampkin.

The play, Lampkin warns, is for "grown-ups and not for children."

"It is a play about adult matters of the heart," he added.

The Tar River Players production opens this weekend with performance times at 8 p.m. tonight and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday at the McIntyre Auditorium on the Tarboro campus of Edgecombe Community College. The production continues next weekend at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 27-28 and 2 p.m. Sunday, April 29. Admission is $10. Tickets may be purchased at Rose Cottage Books or at the door.

"It is a comedy, but series at times. The play is about love and what lengths you will go to to find the real thing ... how painful it may be, but ultimately worthwhile in the end," said Lampkin.

Lampkin has directed and acted in plays in Buffalo, N.Y., where he was a founding member of the Blue Garrote Theater Collective and The Real Dream Cabaret. He is a regular performer with The Tar River Players, but said "I love this place (Tarboro) so much that I felt compelled to direct a play here."

An addition to the production is musical entertainment provided by Tom Gennosa. He has played guitar since age 12 and is forming a local group called Second Saturday that plays classic and contemporary rock and blues.

The Tar River Players bring back its all-star cast and adds some new faces to the group.

"It is very exciting to be bringing in new people. I was stunned at how good they are. It is great to watch people blossom on stage," said Lampkin.

"The audience can come see new faces," he added.

"'The Real Thing' is great because it tries to do something extremely rare," Lampkin wrote in the play's program. "It tries to turn a night at the theater into a complete experience. It combines comedy with emotional pain; it ties sincere heartbreak to slapstick antics; it's intellectually challenging and sexually frank."

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