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The Play's the Thing: A Comedy in Three Acts
Based on a classic farce, Play at the Castle by Ferenc Molnar, Rough Crossing takes place on shipboard as two playwrights struggle to finish a musical comedy and rehearse it before docking in New York; in On the Razzle, adapted from Einen Jux will er sich machen by Johann Nestroy, two shop assistants live it up while dodging their employer in the restaurants and nightspots of Nestroy's nineteenth-century Vienna. Both words and action reveal Tom Stoppard as a master of comic technique.
90 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1926
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About the author
Ferenc Molnár
100 books107 followersFerenc Molnár (Americanized name: Franz Molnar) was a Hungarian dramatist and novelist. During the World War II he emigrated to the United States to escape the Nazi persecution of Hungarian Jews.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
October 9, 2016
It's a blague. Musical diva Ilona is carrying on a flirty compromising chat with her mentor in her suite and we see her adoring beau, a young twitty composer outside her door in a Riviera villa, gasping at what he hears. "Control yourself!" she insists. "What are you doing?" Mentor soon exclaims, "How round it is..how smooth, how velvety--" Indeed, what is her companion doing...? "Don't bite," Ilona says in a quivering voice.
The shocked composer threatens to kill someone -- or tear up his music for their forthcoming operetta. He thought Ilona was a Madonna ! Given this crisis, the book writer thinks quickly. Why Ilona and her many-fingered friend were just rehearsing a scene, don't you understand, and he secretly sets to work writing one that is performed in Act 3, using the words we've just heard. Can you guess how he handles "round, smooth, velvety" and "don't bite" ? (And what mustn't he bite...?)
Life is theatre; reality becomes illusion while illusion becomes reality. We can always manipulate the truth, and anyway, does any of it really matter? Ferenc Molnar's famous Hungarian play, "Spiel im Schloss," has a catchy title from "Hamlet" in the PG Wodehouse adaptation. First produced on Bwy in 1926, it ran almost a year and is revived constantly. It's so flimsy that a mistral could blow it
away. Audiences love it. A production demands top actors and must exude ton, high ton or it will shatter like the champagne glass the despairing composer hurls against the wall.
The heroic librettist, who supplied the Happy Ending, reminds Ilona: "There are very few things in this world that are round, smooth, velvety -- and respectable."
The shocked composer threatens to kill someone -- or tear up his music for their forthcoming operetta. He thought Ilona was a Madonna ! Given this crisis, the book writer thinks quickly. Why Ilona and her many-fingered friend were just rehearsing a scene, don't you understand, and he secretly sets to work writing one that is performed in Act 3, using the words we've just heard. Can you guess how he handles "round, smooth, velvety" and "don't bite" ? (And what mustn't he bite...?)
Life is theatre; reality becomes illusion while illusion becomes reality. We can always manipulate the truth, and anyway, does any of it really matter? Ferenc Molnar's famous Hungarian play, "Spiel im Schloss," has a catchy title from "Hamlet" in the PG Wodehouse adaptation. First produced on Bwy in 1926, it ran almost a year and is revived constantly. It's so flimsy that a mistral could blow it
away. Audiences love it. A production demands top actors and must exude ton, high ton or it will shatter like the champagne glass the despairing composer hurls against the wall.
The heroic librettist, who supplied the Happy Ending, reminds Ilona: "There are very few things in this world that are round, smooth, velvety -- and respectable."
January 11, 2013
Not quite a full-on farce, not quite a romantic comedy, but somewhere between. Two playwrights try to get revisions done during an Atlantic crossing, but the love triangle between their two stars and a young composer gets in the way. The show is stolen, along with about fifty glasses of cognac, by a steward who may be a bit clueless about his new job, but is wise to everything else. Highly entertaining... I look forward to seeing it staged someday.
May 15, 2009
Tom Stoppard is not just a genius but he's a comic and a linguist too. Picture the cast of an iffy, badly-in-need-of-polishing musical aboard a ship being waited on by an iffy steward who knows nothing about ships but starts to learn the lingo with a vengeance, scene by scene, as well as being the main player in a steady line of puns and sight gags involving cognac. Add a new couple and a broken up couple whose old attraction flares up again and gets them in trouble with the pissed off composer as two writers battle for ascension. I'm sure there's a theme here but was too busy laughing to care.
August 26, 2024
A magyar irodalom és színház egyik legértékesebb gyöngyszeme. Nem csoda, hogy előbb mutatták be New Yorkban, mint itthon. Minden évben érdemes elolvasni.
Nincs jobb kikapcsolódás, mint kézbe venni ezt a kötetet és egy pohár itallal kényelmesen elhelyezkedni a kedvenc olvasó sarkunkban. Másfél óra után egy kicsit könnyebb a szívünk és garantáltan jobb a közérzetünk. Receptre írnám fel 14-től felfelé minden korosztálynak.
Nincs jobb kikapcsolódás, mint kézbe venni ezt a kötetet és egy pohár itallal kényelmesen elhelyezkedni a kedvenc olvasó sarkunkban. Másfél óra után egy kicsit könnyebb a szívünk és garantáltan jobb a közérzetünk. Receptre írnám fel 14-től felfelé minden korosztálynak.
July 31, 2017
This play is over-the-top ridiculous. I liked reading it, but it’s definitely a play meant to be seen.
In an Italian villa, a playwright and two of his cohorts overhear an actress (who happens to be involved with one of the cohorts) and her former paramour reigniting their affair. To prevent disaster, the playwright comes up with a plan: writing a play and claiming that’s what the actress and her paramour were ‘rehearsing.’ Tremendous fun but the written form can only do the humor partial justice. Recommended.
In an Italian villa, a playwright and two of his cohorts overhear an actress (who happens to be involved with one of the cohorts) and her former paramour reigniting their affair. To prevent disaster, the playwright comes up with a plan: writing a play and claiming that’s what the actress and her paramour were ‘rehearsing.’ Tremendous fun but the written form can only do the humor partial justice. Recommended.
January 1, 2017
What a lovely comedic play with some great writing-showcasing that Stoppard really is one of the great playwrights of our time. I just loved the characters in this play and could picture it all playing out on stage as I read it. I really liked how it was so self aware yet was smart at the same time. The characters were over the top without being hammy. This play made me smile a lot as I read it which is always a good thing.
September 11, 2015
Az igazat megvallva láttam már színházban, és nagyon nem tetszett az előadás, így kicsit félve álltam neki a drámának... és nagyon pozitívan kellett csalódnom. Ami a színházi előadásban a poros, eltúlzott színészi játéknak és hangsúlyozásnak köszönhetően gagyi poénnak tűnt, itt sokkal jobban szórakoztatott. Imádtam a mű humorát, a pergő, okos, szurkálódó párbeszédeket.
January 13, 2016
Certainly funny, but seemed superficial, especially compared to other Tom Stoppard plays I've read.
It seems like it would be a lot more funny seen rather than read; had I watched it performed, I'd probably have it at fours stars instead of three. It's a play where timing is crucial in a way that's hard to imagine as you're reading.
Still wouldn't be very deep though.
It seems like it would be a lot more funny seen rather than read; had I watched it performed, I'd probably have it at fours stars instead of three. It's a play where timing is crucial in a way that's hard to imagine as you're reading.
Still wouldn't be very deep though.
January 17, 2016
I mean, so. I was not okay and I read this book and now I am more okay. So that's worth something. It was clever and funny and I enjoyed it. Obviously I am not sure that I Understood what it was Saying, you know? And I am not overjoyed with happy endings via deception? But. It was good and it took me out of my head and I laughed.
July 3, 2007
it's like a sitcom before there were sitcoms.
elements that go into a great episode of thee's company, more or less, and all on stage.
smart but family appropriate.
you need to stage a comedy for everyone? try this one on for size.
elements that go into a great episode of thee's company, more or less, and all on stage.
smart but family appropriate.
you need to stage a comedy for everyone? try this one on for size.
June 12, 2007
We happen to be doin this show at The Shakespeare Theatre this season, and it is a delightful piece of peach-flavord fluff.
February 6, 2008
I am Natasha bebe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 5, 2022
My review of this play MAY be biased by the fact that last summer I saw a frothy, lithe, sparkling performance of it that I wanted to bottle up in a jar and carry around with me. It's hilarious - witty AND silly -, smart, and accessible. I highly recommend it even if you're not a fan of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, because it couldn't be more different. SO good.
March 22, 2019
I saw this staged at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth, this week.
It was a beautiful set, well acted, and funny. But it's so ... meh.
Not what I expect from Stoppard.
June 6, 2020
A witty and fun script, adapted from the Hungarian play of the 1920s.
Read
February 27, 2023Intelligens humor és helyzetkomikum jellemzi.
October 19, 2023
Entertaining and humorous, yet also so intelligent in its play within a play approach that it loses its connection to reality. A bit of a mental exercise rather than an enjoyable play.
May 23, 2024
Imádom. Nagyon tetszik a színműben a színmű a színműben. Saját magát írja a dráma, és az utolsó felvonás VALAMI FANTASZTIKUS. Humoros de mégis tanulságos!
December 31, 2024
Wonderful dialogue and comic brio makes me want to read more Stoppard.
July 29, 2025
Great humour I’d love to see live. The structure of the play within the play was a little unclear at some points. Otherwise great.
October 30, 2016
This is one of the funniest things I've read, ever. But what else can you expect from a P.G. Wodehouse adaptation of a Hungarian play?
Two playwrights and their young composer protege chance to overhear, through paper thin walls an intimate scene between the composer's fiance (also the prima donna of their upcoming production) and her old flame. When the crushed composer threatens suicide and swears he'll never write another note, one of the playwrights intervenes. How can he save this situation? By writing the overheard words into a play in the wee hours of the morning, and blackmailing the two culprits into pretending they were rehearsing all along. The ridiculous premise gets even more hilarious when the two playwrights start toying with the idea of how a play is supposed to go, and also toy with the actor who tried to woo another man's fiance.
Two playwrights and their young composer protege chance to overhear, through paper thin walls an intimate scene between the composer's fiance (also the prima donna of their upcoming production) and her old flame. When the crushed composer threatens suicide and swears he'll never write another note, one of the playwrights intervenes. How can he save this situation? By writing the overheard words into a play in the wee hours of the morning, and blackmailing the two culprits into pretending they were rehearsing all along. The ridiculous premise gets even more hilarious when the two playwrights start toying with the idea of how a play is supposed to go, and also toy with the actor who tried to woo another man's fiance.
October 20, 2017
I decided to reread this play after noticing that Tom Stoppard had done an adaptation of it.
I definitely enjoyed The Play's the Thing more on the second reading and found it a better approach to the story than Stoppard’s Rough Crossing. The Play’s the Thing doesn’t try to be too clever but simply enjoys the story being told and takes full advantage of the plot.
When an up-and-coming young playwright hears his fiancé engaged in a tryst with a former lover, it’s up to the playwright’s protégé to salvage the disaster.
After reading Rough Crossing, I’m all the more convinced that Turai could be played by a woman, giving the play two female characters rather than the single love interest. Recommended.
I definitely enjoyed The Play's the Thing more on the second reading and found it a better approach to the story than Stoppard’s Rough Crossing. The Play’s the Thing doesn’t try to be too clever but simply enjoys the story being told and takes full advantage of the plot.
When an up-and-coming young playwright hears his fiancé engaged in a tryst with a former lover, it’s up to the playwright’s protégé to salvage the disaster.
After reading Rough Crossing, I’m all the more convinced that Turai could be played by a woman, giving the play two female characters rather than the single love interest. Recommended.
January 8, 2022
I'm taking a break from my "immediately flunk any play with cheating" rule to have a big ol' belly laugh at this hilarious comedy. It certainly doesn't hurt that Wodehouse was the adaptor! One of the few plays I want to direct very badly! The script is SO clever and the way it gets turned on its head in the end is fantastic! I also appreciate that, while both guilty parties are chewed out, the man who was the instigator and pursuer with a wife and four children was absolutely CURBSTOMPED, instead of just painting the lady as a hoochy mama. Good show!
January 7, 2020
قراءتي المتواضعة في هذا النص اللطيف شديد الثراء منشورة في صحيفة مسرحنا بتاريخ 25 فبراير 2019:
https://www.gocp.gov.eg/Masr7na/artic...
https://www.gocp.gov.eg/Masr7na/artic...
May 16, 2022
مسرحية دمها خفيف .. حبيت شخصية تروي و سرعة بديهته في التعامل مع الموقف الحرج اللي اتحط فيه الابطال ♥️
May 4, 2024
I actually thought it's hysterical. 4.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews