Travesties

Infobox Play
name = Travesties


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writer = Tom Stoppard
characters = James Joyce
Bennett
Nadezhda Krupskaya
Tristan Tzara
Cecily Carruthers
Gwendolen Carr
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov
Henry Car
setting = Zürich, Switzerland, 1917
premiere = June 10 1974
place = Aldwych Theatre
London, England
orig_lang = English
subject =
genre = Comedy
web =
playbill =
ibdb_id = 8853

"Travesties" is a comedic play by Tom Stoppard, first produced at the Aldwych Theatre, London, on June 10, 1974, in a production by the Royal Shakespeare Company. The play was directed by Peter Wood and designed by Carl Toms, with lighting by Robert Ornbo. It closed March 13 1976 after 156 performances at the Aldwych then the Albery Theatres in London and the Ethel Barrymore Theater in New York City.

An important revival with revised text, greatly shortening Cecily's Act II lecture on Lenin, was given by the Royal Shakespeare Company at its theatre in the Barbican Arts Centre in September 1993, directed by Adrian Noble. The production transferred to the Savoy Theatre in March 1994 and ran there until June 1994. A reading was given at the British Library in February 2008, featuring John Hurt.

Plot synopsis structure

The play's setting is primarily Zürich, Switzerland during World War I. Three important 20th-century personalities were living in Zürich at that time: the modernist author James Joyce, the communist revolutionary Lenin, and the Dadaist founder Tristan Tzara. The less notable English consular official Henry Carr, who is likewise a real person and was similarly in Zürich, years later recalls his perceptions and his experiences with these influential figures. As he reminisces, Carr's now geriatric memory becomes prone to distraction, and instead of predictable historical biography, these characters are interpreted through the maze of his mind.

Carr's memories are couched in a Zürich production of Oscar Wilde's play "The Importance of Being Earnest" in which he had a starring role. Stoppard uses this production and Carr's mixed feelings surrounding it as a framework to explore art, the war and revolution. Situations from "Earnest" feature prominently within the action. "Travesties"' characters also includes versions of two of "Earnest's": Gwendolen and Cecily and the comedic situations of many of the other roles are shared by other characters.

Stoppard uses many clever theatrical devices within the play, including puns, limericks, and an extended parody of the vaudeville song "Mister Gallagher and Mister Shean."

Historically, the real Carr did play Algernon with a group of actors called "The English Players", for whom the real James Joyce was the business manager. (Carr and Joyce had an angry disagreement after the play, which led to legal action and accusations of slander by Joyce. The dispute was settled, with the judge deciding in favor of both disputants on different counts. Joyce would go on to parody Carr and the English Consul General in Zürich at that time, A. Percy Bennett, as two minor characters in "Ulysses," with Carr portrayed as a drunken, obscene soldier in the "Circe" episode.) According to Stoppard, this piece of historical trivia was the spark which catalyzed the ideas behind the rest of the show. Although quite a few historical inaccuracies are present throughout the production, these can be seen as mistakes (purposeful and accidental) from Carr's addled mind.

On the first performance of Travesties, Stoppard received a letter from the real Henry Carr's widow, expressing her surprise that her late husband had found himself imagined as a character in Stoppard's play.

Casting

Original cast

* Henry Carr – John Wood
* Tristan Tzara – John Hurt
* James Joyce – Tom Bell
* Vladimir Lenin – Frank Windsor
* Bennett – John Bott
* Gwendolen – Maria Aitken
* Cecily – Beth Morris
* Nadya – Barbara Leigh-Hunt

;Cast changes
*Tristan Tzara: Robert Powell; Tim Curry
*James Joyce: John Quentin; James Booth
*Vladimir Lenin: Harry Towb
*Gwendolen: Meg Wynn Owen
*Nadya: Frances Cuka

1993 cast

* Henry Carr - Antony Sher
* Tristan Tzara - David Westhead
* James Joyce - Lloyd Hutchinson
* Vladimir Lenin - Geoffrey Freshwater
* Bennett - Trevor Martin
* Gwendolen Carr - Rebecca Saire
* Cecily Carruthers - Amanda Harris
* Nadya - Darlene Johnson

Awards and nominations

;Awards
* 1976 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play
* 1976 Tony Award for Best Play
* 1976 Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy

References

*cite web | author=Michael Berry | title=Travesties | url=http://www.sff.net/people/mberry/travest.htp | publisher=Michael Berry's Web Pages | date=09 November 1997| accessdate=2008-06-19
*cite web | author=Sam Beckett | title=Travesties at Seattle Public Theater | url=http://travesties-seattlepublictheater.blogspot.com/ | publisher=Seattle Public Theater | date=08 January 2007 | accessdate=2008-06-19

External links

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