| Travesties | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Written by | Tom Stoppard |
| Characters | James Joyce Bennett Nadezhda Krupskaya Tristan Tzara Cecily Carruthers Gwendolen Carr Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov Henry Carr |
| Date premiered | 10 June 1974 |
| Place premiered | Aldwych Theatre London, England |
| Original language | English |
| Subject | An extravaganza of political history, literary pastiche, and Wildean parody, introducing Dadaist Tristan Tzara, and Lenin and his wife |
| Genre | Comedy |
| Setting | Zürich, Switzerland, 1917 |
Travesties is a 1974 play byTom Stoppard. It centres on the figure ofHenry Carr, an old man who reminisces aboutZürich in 1917 duringthe First World War, and his interactions withJames Joyce when he was writingUlysses,Tristan Tzara during the rise ofDada, andLenin leading up to theRussian Revolution, all of whom were living in Zürich at that time.
The realHenry Carr was a minor consular official who played Algernon in a production ofThe Importance of Being Earnest in Zürich in 1917 in a group of actors called The English Players, for whom the realJames Joyce was the business manager. Carr and Joyce had an angry disagreement after the production, 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 had his revenge by parodying Carr and the English Consul General in Zürich at that time, A. Percy Bennett, as two minor characters inUlysses, with Carr being portrayed as a drunken, obscene soldier in the "Circe" episode.[1]
In the 1970s,Tom Stoppard, struck by the fact that Joyce,Vladimir Lenin and theDadaist poetTristan Tzara were all in Zurich in 1917, wrote a play that brought all three together seen through the unreliable memory of the octogenarian Carr looking back five decades later. InTravesties Carr is the central figure with the others in orbit around him. He is seen both as an old man reminiscing and as the young man of 1917 – the same actor plays both Carrs.
After the first performance ofTravesties, Stoppard received a letter from Henry Carr's widow expressing her surprise that her late husband had been included as a character in Stoppard's play.[2]
The play is set inZürich, Switzerland during theFirst World War and in the 1970s. In 1917, three historicallly important figures were living in Zürich: themodernist author James Joyce, the communist revolutionaryLenin, and theDada founderTristan Tzara. The play centres on the less notableHenry Carr, a British consular official, as he recalls his encounters with these three. As he reminisces, Carr's memory becomes prone to distraction, and the narrative veers away from historical accuracy.
The young Carr spies on Lenin, argues with Tzara about the nature of true art, is persuaded by Joyce to play Algernon and later quarrels over the cost of buying new trousers for the role. The old Carr concludes the first act:
I dreamed about him, dreamed I had him in the witness box, a masterly cross-examination, case practically won, admitted it all, the whole thing, the trousers, everything, and Iflung at him – "And what did you do in the Great War?" "I wroteUlysses," he said. "What did you do?"
Bloody nerve.[3]
After further confused memories and mix-ups in the second act, the old Carr concludes the play:
Great days ... Zurich during the war. Refugees, spies, exiles, painters, poets, writers, radicals of all kinds. I knew them all. Used to argue far into the night – at the Odeon, the Terrasse – I learned three things in Zurich during the war. I wrote them down. Firstly, you're either a revolutionary or you're not, and if you're not you might as well be an artist as anything else. Secondly, if you can't be an artist, you might as well be a revolutionary …
I forget the third thing.[4]
Travesties was first produced at theAldwych Theatre, London, on 10 June 1974, by theRoyal Shakespeare Company. The production was directed byPeter Wood and designed byCarl Toms. It closed on 13 March 1976 after 156 performances at theAldwych and theAlbery Theatres in London, and theEthel Barrymore Theater in New York.
A revival of the play, directed byAdrian Noble and featuring a revised text that abbreviated Cecily's lecture on Lenin in Act II by moving much of it to the interval, was staged by theRoyal Shakespeare Company at its theatre in theBarbican Arts Centre in September 1993. The production transferred to theSavoy Theatre in March 1994.[5]
A new revival, directed byPatrick Marber, was performed at theMenier Chocolate Factory from September until November 2016. The production "broke box office records at the Menier Chocolate Factory, becoming the first play in the company’s history to sell out ahead of its first preview".[6] In February 2017 the play, and company, transferred to the Apollo Theatre in London, where the run continued until April 2017.[6]
The production's designer was Tim Hatley, the lighting designer Neil Austin, and Adam Cork was the sound designer and composer of original music.[10]
Patrick Marber's revival transferred toBroadway in spring 2018, withTom Hollander reprising his role as Henry Carr and Peter McDonald reprising his performance as James Joyce. Travesties opened on 24 April 2018 at the Roundabout Theatre Company's American Airlines Theater in New York.[11][12]
TheRoundabout Theatre Company's education team have produced an 'Upstage' guide toTravesties[13] which puts the play's themes in historical context and contains interviews with the director, cast, and crew. The revival has been praised by critics with Ben Brantley ofThe New York Times commenting that he "...would venture that this latest incarnation is the clearest and surely one of the liveliest on record. It should prove ridiculously entertaining for anyone with even a passing knowledge of its central characters, and a stroll through the groves of Wikipedia should offer adequate preparation for anyone else."[14]
The Australian premiere of the 2016 script adaptation opened inMelbourne in winter 2019, with Dion Mills taking the role of Henry Carr. The production was directed by Jennifer Sarah Dean.[15]
