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Tom Stoppard provokes strong opinions.
But what keeps it from being pretentious is the sincere explosive joy with which its constructed.
(Hatley also did the charming costumes.)
What he was, though, was in the right place at the right time.
Neutral Zurich, Switzerland in 1917 was a sophisticated safe haven for artists, writers, and philosophers.
James Joyce was there, and Vladimir Lenin.
So was Tristan Tzara, widely known as the father ofDada.
), his digressions acquire a dramatic structure.
Patrick Kerr is a wonderfully droll Bennett, Carrs possibly Communist manservant.
As Tzarathe artistic gadabout who was post- before there was even modernismSeth Numrich is a devil-may-care delight.
It seems that the hazes of Carrs memory are prone not only to digression but to dance breaks.
As Henry Carr, the infirm center ofTravesties mental merry-go-round, Tom Hollander is a marvel.
Hes also a master of dry uncertainty (see his Hulu seriesRev.
Carr is all three of these and, in Hollanders hands, still more.
We see the vibrant figures from his past receding into darkness.
We realize for the first time just how much of what weve witnessed was most likely wishful fantasy.
Art, arguesTravesties, is never simply a blunt tool.
Its a celebration, an exaltation, a spell, a dance, a feast, and a farce.
And, like life, its far too important to be taken seriously.
Travestiesis at the American Airlines Theatre.
