Truth is a protagonist in The Real Thing, Tom Stoppard’s 1982 play about love, marriage, and writing. It begins with a play within a play: Max accuses his wife, Charlotte, of infidelity. Soon the audience realizes this couple is fictional, two characters in a work by a playwright named Henry. In real life, Henry is married to the actress playing Charlotte. And it is not she who is unfaithful, but he. An egotistical man, Henry is having an affair with Annie, another actress, who happens to be married to Charlotte’s co-star in Henry’s show. Confused? Welcome to Stoppard’s intricate web of betrayal. “Though dated in some respects,” Sarah Hemming writes in the Financial Times, “it remains an inventive comedy that best articulates love by showing how hard it is to do.” Directed by Max Webster, this production stars James McArdle and Bel Powley. —Jeanne Malle