TRAVESTIES by Tom Stoppard

TRAVESTIES
Written by Tom Stoppard
Directed by Jim McCauley
Presented by Bath Drama

Zurich, 1917. British consular official Henry Carr is cast as Algernon in a production of 'The Importance of Being Earnest' and ends up suing the company's business manager, James Joyce, who counter-sues him then immortalises him as a drunken soldier in his masterpiece, 'Ulysses'. Also living in Zurich at this time are Tristan Tzara, co-founder of the Dada anti-art movement, and Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov: Lenin, desperate to return to Russia to play his part in the unfolding revolution.

Those are the facts. The rest is 'Travesties': an erudite, joyful and very funny dramatic mash-up in which Tom Stoppard spins the elderly Carr's unreliable memories into a breathless tale of love, war, art, revolution, espionage and trousers, with a plot largely borrowed from Wilde plus the liberal appropriation of Joyce, Shakespeare and a long-forgotten Vaudeville song along the way. To our knowledge it's never performed in Bath before, so this is a rare chance to enjoy a lesser-spotted Stoppard gem.

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