Travesties
Encyclopedia
Travesties is a play by Tom Stoppard
.
The play centres on the figure of Henry Carr, an elderly man who reminisces about Zürich
in 1917 during the First World War
, and his interactions with James Joyce
when he was writing Ulysses
, Tristan Tzara
during the rise of Dada
, and Lenin leading up to the Russian Revolution, all of whom were living in Zürich at that time.
, Switzerland during the First World War. Three important personalities were living in Zürich at that time: the modernist
author James Joyce
, the communist
revolutionary Lenin, and the founder of Dada
, Tristan Tzara
. In the play the less notable English consular official Henry Carr, who is likewise a real person and was similarly in Zürich, recalls his perceptions and his experiences with these influential figures. As he reminisces Carr's 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. The characters in Travesties also include versions of two from Earnest, Gwendolen and Cecily, and the comedic situations of many of the other roles are shared by other characters. Stoppard uses many theatrical
devices within the play, including pun
s, limericks
, and an extended parody of the vaudeville
song "Mister Gallagher and Mister Shean
".
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 favour of both disputants on different counts. Joyce later parodied Carr, and the English Consul General in Zürich at that time, A. Percy Bennett, as two minor characters in Ulysses
, with Carr being portrayed as a drunken, obscene soldier in the "Circe" episode.
After 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.
, London, on 10 June 1974, by the Royal Shakespeare Company
. The production was directed by Peter Wood
and designed by Carl Toms
, with lighting by Robert Ornbo. It closed on 13 March 1976 after 156 performances at the Aldwych, the Albery Theatres in London and the Ethel Barrymore Theater in New York City.
Cast changes
. The production was 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
.
Awards
Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...
.
The play centres on the figure of Henry Carr, an elderly man who reminisces about Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
in 1917 during the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, and his interactions with James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
when he was writing Ulysses
Ulysses (novel)
Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...
, Tristan Tzara
Tristan Tzara
Tristan Tzara was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, composer and film director, he was known best for being one of the founders and central figures of the anti-establishment Dada movement...
during the rise of Dada
Dada
Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
, and Lenin leading up to the Russian Revolution, all of whom were living in Zürich at that time.
Plot
The play's setting is primarily ZürichZürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, Switzerland during the First World War. Three important personalities were living in Zürich at that time: the modernist
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
author James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
, the communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
revolutionary Lenin, and the founder of Dada
Dada
Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
, Tristan Tzara
Tristan Tzara
Tristan Tzara was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, composer and film director, he was known best for being one of the founders and central figures of the anti-establishment Dada movement...
. In the play the less notable English consular official Henry Carr, who is likewise a real person and was similarly in Zürich, recalls his perceptions and his experiences with these influential figures. As he reminisces Carr's 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
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
's play The Importance of Being Earnest
The Importance of Being Earnest
The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at St. James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae in order to escape burdensome social obligations...
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. The characters in Travesties also include versions of two from Earnest, Gwendolen and Cecily, and the comedic situations of many of the other roles are shared by other characters. Stoppard uses many theatrical
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
devices within the play, including pun
Pun
The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...
s, limericks
Limerick (poetry)
A limerick is a kind of a witty, humorous, or nonsense poem, especially one in five-line or meter with a strict rhyme scheme , which is sometimes obscene with humorous intent. The form can be found in England as of the early years of the 18th century...
, and an extended parody of the vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
song "Mister Gallagher and Mister Shean
Mister Gallagher and Mister Shean
"Mister Gallagher and Mister Shean" is one of the most famous songs to come from vaudeville. First performed by the duo of Gallagher and Shean in the early 1920s, it became a huge hit and carried Gallagher & Shean to stardom....
".
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 favour of both disputants on different counts. Joyce later parodied Carr, and the English Consul General in Zürich at that time, A. Percy Bennett, as two minor characters in Ulysses
Ulysses (novel)
Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...
, with Carr being portrayed as a drunken, obscene soldier in the "Circe" episode.
After 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.
Original Production
Travesties was first produced at the Aldwych TheatreAldwych Theatre
The Aldwych Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Aldwych in the City of Westminster. The theatre was listed Grade II on 20 July 1971. Its seating capacity is 1,200.-Origins:...
, London, on 10 June 1974, by the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
. The production was directed by Peter Wood
Peter Wood (director)
Peter Wood is an English award-winning theatre and film director.-External links:...
and designed by Carl Toms
Carl Toms
Carl Toms OBE was a British set and costume designer who was known for his work in theatre, opera, ballet, and film.- Education :...
, with lighting by Robert Ornbo. It closed on 13 March 1976 after 156 performances at the Aldwych, the Albery Theatres in London and the Ethel Barrymore Theater in New York City.
- Henry Carr – John WoodJohn Wood (English actor)John Wood, CBE was an English actor.-Biography:Wood was born in Derbyshire and studied law at Jesus College, Oxford where he was president of the Oxford University Dramatic Society. Changing to drama, Wood became known as a stage actor, appearing in numerous West End productions as well as on...
- Tristan Tzara – John HurtJohn HurtJohn Vincent Hurt, CBE is an English actor, known for his leading roles as John Merrick in The Elephant Man, Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Mr. Braddock in The Hit, Stephen Ward in Scandal, Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant and An Englishman in New York...
- James Joyce – Tom BellTom Bell (actor)Tom Bell was an English actor on stage, film and television. He was dark-haired, lean, and in his later years often played characters having a sinister side to their nature.-Biography:...
- Vladimir Lenin – Frank WindsorFrank WindsorFrank Windsor is an English actor, mainly on television.He attended Queen Mary's Grammar School, Walsall. He began his career on radio and made an appearance in a 1953 film of Henry V...
- Bennett – John Bott
- Gwendolen – Maria AitkenMaria AitkenMaria Penelope Katharine Aitken is an English actress, writer, producer and director.Aitken was born in Dublin, the daughter of Sir William Aitken, a Conservative MP, and socialite Penelope Aitken, whose father was John Maffey, 1st Baron Rugby. She is a great-niece of newspaper magnate and...
- Cecily – Beth MorrisBeth MorrisBethany Morris is a British actress.She is probably best known for her performance as Drusilla in the 1976 BBC adaptation of I, Claudius...
- Nadya – Barbara Leigh-HuntBarbara Leigh-HuntBarbara Leigh-Hunt , Bath, England, is a British actress who has appeared on stage, film, television and radio.-Career:...
Cast changes
- Tristan Tzara: Robert PowellRobert PowellRobert Powell is an English television and film actor, probably most famous for his title role in Jesus of Nazareth and as the fictional secret agent Richard Hannay...
; Tim CurryTim CurryTimothy James "Tim" Curry is a British actor, singer, composer and voice actor, known for his work in a diverse range of theatre, film and television productions. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California.... - James Joyce: John Quentin; James BoothJames BoothJames Booth was an English film, stage and television actor and screenwriter. Though handsome enough to play leading roles, and versatile enough to play a wide variety of character parts, Booth naturally projected a shifty, wolfish, or unpredictable quality that led inevitably to villainous roles...
- Vladimir Lenin: Harry TowbHarry TowbHarry Towb was a Northern Irish actor.-Early life and career:Towb's father was Russian and his mother was Irish. He attended the Finiston School and Technical College, Belfast...
- Gwendolen: Meg Wynn OwenMeg Wynn OwenMeg Wynn Owen is a Welsh actress, who is best known for her role as Hazel Bellamy, née Forrest, in the television series Upstairs, Downstairs....
- Nadya: Frances CukaFrances CukaFrances Cuka is a British actress, principally on television, whose career has spanned nearly fifty years.Cuka was born in London, England, the daughter of Letitia Alice Annie , a tailor, and Joseph Cuka, a process engraver. On stage, she created the role of Jo in Shelagh Delaney's play A Taste of...
1993 Production
A revival of the play, with a revised text greatly shortening Cecily's lecture on Lenin in Act II, was given by the Royal Shakespeare Company at its theatre in the Barbican Arts Centre in September 1993, directed by Adrian NobleAdrian Noble
Adrian Keith Noble is a theatre director, and was also the artistic director and chief executive of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1990 to 2003.-Education and career:...
. The production was transferred to the Savoy Theatre
Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan,...
in March 1994 and ran there until June 1994. A reading was given at the British Library in February 2008, featuring John Hurt
John Hurt
John Vincent Hurt, CBE is an English actor, known for his leading roles as John Merrick in The Elephant Man, Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Mr. Braddock in The Hit, Stephen Ward in Scandal, Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant and An Englishman in New York...
.
- Henry Carr - Antony SherAntony SherSir Antony Sher, KBE is a double Olivier Award winning South African-born British actor, writer, theatre director and painter.- Early years :...
- Tristan Tzara - David WestheadDavid WestheadDavid Westhead is a British actor. He is notable as having been a member of the regular cast of Criminal Justice, Life Begins, The Lakes and The Time of Your Life...
- James Joyce - Lloyd Hutchinson
- Vladimir Lenin - Geoffrey FreshwaterGeoffrey FreshwaterGeoffrey Freshwater is an English actor. His television appearances include The Government Inspector and the recurring character of Sgt Eric Rivers in 5 episodes of Foyle's War, and he is also a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, appearing in their 2007-08 This England cycle of Shakespeare's...
- Bennett - Trevor MartinTrevor MartinTrevor Martin is a British actor.He is perhaps known for playing the Doctor on stage at the Adelphi Theatre, London in Doctor Who and the Daleks in the Seven Keys to Doomsday based on the popular television series Doctor Who...
- Gwendolen Carr - Rebecca SaireRebecca SaireRebecca Saire is a British actress and writer who achieved early notability when, at the age of fourteen, she played Juliet for the BBC Television Shakespeare series.- Personal life :...
- Cecily Carruthers - Amanda Harris
- Nadya - Darlene Johnson
Awards and nominations
Awards
- 1976 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best PlayNew York Drama Critics' CircleThe New York Drama Critics' Circle is made up of 24 drama critics from daily newspapers, magazines and wire services based in the New York City metropolitan area. The organization was founded in 1935 at the Algonquin Hotel by a group that included Brooks Atkinson, Walter Winchell, and Robert Benchley...
- 1976 Tony Award for Best PlayTony Award for Best PlayThe Tony Award for Best Play is an annual award celebrating achievements in live American theatre, including musical theatre, honoring productions on Broadway in New York. It currently takes place in mid-June each year.There was no award in the Tony's first year...
- 1976 Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy