"The Importance of Being Stoppard"
Farce, high comedy, verbal pyrotechnics, and even dance and music mix delectably with volubly and voluminously recited ideas on art and political philosophy in Tom Stoppard’s Travesties, now being revived at the Roundabout’s American Airlines Theatre.
This pitch-perfectly acted version, originally staged at London’s
Menier Chocolate Factory under Patrick Marber’s brilliant direction, includes that
production’s star, Tom Hollander, repeating his Olivier-nominated performance as
Henry Carr. John Wood, who originated the role, won the Best Actor Tony for
1975-1976; given Hollander’s already being in the running for this season’s
other awards, I can’t think of a stronger candidate for at least a nomination.
Stoppard’s 1974 play, which won the 1975-1976 Tony for Best
Play, manages the rare feat of being both intellectually stimulating, visually
appealing, and hilariously funny. Its premise is the enactment of the befuddled
memories of the elderly Carr, recalling his days as British consul in Zurich,
Switzerland, half a century earlier, in 1917, during World War I. 
We don’t meet Carr, though, until after a prologue-like
scene set in the Zurich Public Library in 1917, where Stoppard introduces 1) the
freethinking Romanian poet Tristan Tzara (Seth Numrich), a cofounder of the
radical Dada movement, seeking
to overthrow conventional notions of art; 2) Irish novelist James Joyce (Peter
McDonald), writing his linguistically path-breaking novel, Ulysses; and 3) the Russian Bolshevik leader, Vladimir Ilyich
Ulyanov, better known as Lenin (Dan Butler), seeking (with his wife, Nadya
[Opal Alladin]) a way to sneak back into Russia. If you don’t have a chance to
brush up on who these people were, the program offers helpful highlights.
Using the historically coincidental presence of these
political and artistic revolutionaries in neutral Switzerland as his
inspiration, Stoppard, with old Carr’s erratic memory as his filter and the Zurich
library as common ground, imagines what might have happened had their paths
crossed at this crucial moment in modern history. Carr loves to pontificate on
his familiarity with these celebrated men, regardless of the real Carr’s having
met only Joyce.
Most of the action is a flashback showing how the aged Carr
remembers things. When he appears as his younger self, the play focuses on
something that actually did happen. This is Carr’s performance as Algernon (“the
other one,” he says when he can’t remember the name) in an amateur production presented
by Joyce of Wilde’s The Importance of
Being Earnest. Carr, in fact, was
involved in a law suit with Joyce over what he paid for his costumes.
Wilde’s play serves as the framework for Carr’s memories
(thus offering one reason for the title Travesties),
in which his sister, Sophie (Sara Topham), is transmogrified into a librarian
named Cecily, while the beautiful young woman serving as Joyce’s amanuensis is
given the name Gwendolen (Scarlett Strallen). 
Carr and Tzara, who has a romance with Gwen, become the
equivalents of Algie and Jack; Lenin and his wife the alternatives of Dr.
Chasuble and Miss Prism; Carr’s butler, Bennett (Patrick Kerr), a stand-in for Earnest’s Merriman and Lane; and a manuscript mix-up a substitute for Wilde’s
handbag.
Being a play based on faulty memories, the action often
stops to rewind in “time slips” as a bell rings and a scene is redone from a
different perspective, much as David Ives later did in one of the one-acts constituting
his All in the Timing. 
Stoppard, born in Czechoslovakia, but nonetheless one of
most awesome word magicians in the English language, uses a dizzying array of
poetic and prosaic devices, including puns, alliteration, rhymes, literary
quotations, limericks, historical writings, epigrams, and even vaudeville routines
to tickle your ears and keep your head buzzing.
On a couple of occasions, the characters burst into delightfully
executed song or dance (Polly Bennett is credited with “movement”), a highlight
being an extended duologue between Cecily and Gwendolen set to the rhythm and
tune of the famous old “Mr. Gallagher and
Mr. Shean” vaudeville routine. A snippet :
CECILY: Oh, dear Miss Carr, oh dear Miss Carr,
Please remain exactly where you are
I beg you don’t get up—
GWEN (to Bennett): I think we’ll need another cup—
Pray sit down, Miss Carruthers . . .
CECILY: . . . So kind of you, Miss Carr.
Even with so much stage time taken up with philosophical
debates about the meaning of art, the role of the artist in society, Marxist
theory, revolutionary politics, and the like, you’re never quite sure just
where on the spectrum of ideas Stoppard himself belongs. You just listen, catch
as much as you can, and then, perhaps, go back again, prepared to pick up what
you missed the first time around. 
Given the all-around skill and charm of this physically and
verbally dexterous company—which I assumed was all-English until discovering
its actors hail from England, Canada, and the USA—Stoppard’s potentially
challenging comedy is as light as a soufflé and perfectly accessible.
Marber has staged it dynamically, with speed, inventiveness,
and variety, using a versatile set by Tim Hatley (who also did the lovely
period costumes) that serves as both the library and Carr’s home. Its solid
sections are separated with spaces that allow the actors to race in and out of
their interstices as well as through the very solid doors. A closet-like
structure upstage center provides surprise appearances while its upper part can
be turned into a lectern or other scenic space. Neil Austin’s lighting and Adam
Cork’s sound design and original music share the same creative spirit infusing
everything in the production.
No fault can be found with any of the actors, each of whom
has aria-like moments of exuberant excellence. McDonald, Butler, and Numrich
are lookalike avatars of Joyce, Lenin, and Tzara, especially the first two.
Numrich, on the other hand, demonstrates distinctively graceful physicality as
the foppish, monocle-wearing Tzara. Alladin’s Nadya, who speaks many lines in
Russian, is as imposing as Strallen and Topham are exquisitely appealing, while
Kerr’s Bennet is every inch the snobbish, self-consciously superior servingman. Finally, Hollander’s Carr offers a tour de force of verbal clarity, comic
timing, and physical expressivity.
I’m sorry I didn’t see Travesties
when it first played on Broadway 43 years ago. And, aware of its
difficulties, I was afraid its revival would prove something of a slog. What
Marber and company have pulled off, however, makes a travesty of my
reservations. Do yourself a favor and see it, not four decades from now.
OTHER VIEWPOINTS:
American Airlines Theatre
227 W. 42nd St. NYC
Through June 17
