Rough Crossing
by Tom Stoppard
Sweet Ego, Edinburgh
About the play:
Turai and Gal have four and a half days to write a play. They wrote Lottie from Brest-Litovsk in four and a half days but unfortunately Lottie from Brest-Litovsk was the first play ever to close after its matinée. Their task is made more difficult by the tangled web of love between the dashing lead Ivor Fish, who wants to get his Juliet, the beautiful diva Natasha Navratilova, back onto his pillion, and the nervous wreck of a composer, Adam, struck almost dumb by a curious speech disability derived from a fear of his mother.
The action takes place on board an ocean liner bound for New York, where the play is to be performed on arrival. But the ship could easily be tied up in Casablanca while the real cruise ship, the Dodo (“Dido, for God’s sake! You’re not going to name a boat after a typist’s error?” “Of course I am. That woman was inspired!”) is in the hands of a gang of white slave traders on a round-the-world cruise. As the lines between rehearsal and reality become blurred by the nauseous effects of the high seas, we wait with a feeling similar to sea sickness to see whether Adam will win his lady love or fall silent truly and forever, whether the Captain on his “balcony” or the telephone operator can write a better play than our heroes, whether Gal will ever stop eating, and perhaps we will learn why on earth Dvornichek – the incompetent cabin steward – is an Irish policeman called Murphy with an uncanny knowledge of everyone’s business. Add in Adam’s music and Theatrical Theatrics Productions’ performance of Tom Stoppard’s Rough Crossing will deliver (four and a half days early) the dazzling première in New York.
A prize at the end for anyone who can tell us who Reggie Robinsod actually is. Ping-pong, anyone?
