Review: Travesties

James Joyce: famous literary genius and writer of the iconic Ulysses.

Vladimir Lenin: Russian Communist revolutionary.

Tristan Tzara: one of the founders of the anti-establishment art movement, Dada.

Three seemingly unrelated celebrities, these are in fact the three main characters in Tom Stoppard’s theatrical production Travesties (on now at the Apollo Theatre, London), portrayed through the reminiscent eyes of protagonist Henry Carr (played expertly by The Night Manager star Tom Hollander). The play focuses on the time they all spent together in Zurich in 1917, a neutral zone during the First World War, highlighting the clashes and arguments that people of this calibre fall into when their ideas collide.

In a veritable flood of cultural references and nuance, the play is exceptionally intellectual, every line boasting some form of subtle comedy. The fascinating and ingenious script underlines the stark opinion differences that crop up amongst different social groups: a literary Irishman (Joyce), a passionate artist (Tzara), a brutal revolutionary (Lenin), and a member of the haute bourgeoisie (Carr): it’s a recipe for disaster but, also, exceptional theatre.

Carr and Tzara clash fiercely and hilariously over the meaning of art and what it represents. In typical anti-establishment fashion, Tzara believes the World War to be a fabricated farce, much to the raging fury of Carr who actually found himself in the trenches a few years before. Tzara pretentiously even questions the meaning of language, willing Carr to define words such as honour, courage, patriotism and culminating in a uproarious rebuttal monologue in which Carr flamboyantly states that he is flying, despite standing deathly still.

Theatrically, the arguments continue as Joyce speaks completely in limerick, giving an impressive momentum, rhythm and inherent confidence to his beliefs. Throughout the play, Joyce continues to write his iconic Ulysses much to the dismay of Tzara and Carr who view it as pointless and unnecessarily detailed. By way of justification and counterargument, his limericious monologues are immensely fun for the audience, as he ebbs and flows, always in time and metre, giving a melody to the scenes and wooing the audience to keep up with his fast-moving and ever-eloquent rebuttals.  

Plot-wise, we alternate between Carr-past and Carr-present, one young, energetic, grandiose and farcically articulate, the other elderly, senile and lapsing in memory at the tales he tells. This gives an uncertainty to the scenes that we see, unsure whether his dementia has altered the truth. In fact, his wife invalidates a number of happenings at the very end of the play, in response to which Carr customarily calls her a pedant.

The joy of this play, however, is not the plot, this is somewhat minor in comparison to the ideas, philosophies and, crucially, the language. For all logophiles and literary buffs, every moment of this play is a wonder to watch. Whether it’s wordplay, both English and multilingual, puns, muddled metre, literary reference, historical whims, or artistic quips, the play will enrich and stimulate anyone with a penchant for culture. The actors are fantastic, the script genius, and we learnt an outstanding new piece of lexicon: quadrioculate.

All in all, brilliant.