Rock 'n' Roll (play)
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Rock 'n' Roll is a play by Czech-born British playwright Tom Stoppard that premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2006.
The play is concerned with the significance of rock and roll in the emergence of the democratic movement in Eastern Bloc Czechoslovakia between the Prague Spring of 1968 and the Velvet Revolution of 1989. Taking place at Cambridge University, England and in Prague, the play contrasts the attitudes of a young Czech Ph.D student and rock music fan who becomes appalled by the repressive regime in his home country with those of his British Marxist professor who unrepentantly continues to believe in the Soviet ideal. This is not the first play in Stoppard's oeuvre that has been concerned with artistic dissent against the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia: Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth also concerns this, and does Every Good Boy Deserves Favour and Professional Foul.
The premiere of the play was attended by first president of the post-Communist Czech Republic and leading figure of the Velvet Revolution, Václav Havel (a friend of Stoppard's) and rock star Mick Jagger, whose band, The Rolling Stones features in the final scene of the play (and who has also previously worked with Stoppard, having produced the film Enigma, for which Stoppard wrote the screenplay [1]).
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[edit] Original Production
The original production was staged at the Royal Court Theatre and ran from June 3 until July 15 2006. It then transferred to the Duke of York's Theatre. The production was directed by Trevor Nunn and featured the following cast:
- Jan - Rufus Sewell
- Max - Brian Cox
- Eleanor, Esme - Sinead Cusack
- Interrogator, Nigel - Anthony Calf
- Ferdinand - Peter Sullivan
- Young Esme, Alice - Alice Eve
- Gillian, Magda, Deirdre - Miranda Colchester
- Piper, Police Officer 1, Stephen - Edward Hogg
- Milan, Police Officer 2, Jaroslav - Martin Chamberlain
- Lenka - Nicole Ansari
- Candida - Louise Bangay
Taking over from the principal actors mid-run were:
- Jan - Dominic West
- Max - David Calder
- Eleanor, Esme - Emma Fielding
The production closed on February 25th, 2007 at the Duke of York's Theatre before a proposed transfer to Broadway in the autumn of 2007.
[edit] Prague Production
The play premiered in Prague's historic National Theater (Narodni Divadlo) in February 2007. It features an opening performance by The Plastic People of the Universe.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Report on the play from Radio Prague
- Stoppard discusses the theme of rock and roll music's influence on Czechoslovakian politics in an article in the The Times newspaper
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| The Plays of Tom Stoppard |
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| 15-Minute Hamlet, After Magritte, Arcadia, Cahoot's Macbeth, The Coast of Utopia, Dalliance, Dirty Linen and New-Found-Land, Dogg's Hamlet, Enter a Free Man, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Hapgood, Indian Ink, The Invention of Love, Jumpers, Night and Day, On the Razzle, Professional Foul, The Real Inspector Hound, The Real Thing, Rock 'n' Roll, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Rough Crossing, Travesties, Undiscovered Country |
