Rock 'n' Roll: A New Play

For you, freedom means, ‘Leave me alone.’ For the masses it means, ‘Give me a chance.’

Wonderful exposition on the possibility of dissent. Layered with pop culture, the scene of Rock ‘N’ Roll switches back and forth between Cambridge and Prague from 1968 to 1992. A Czech grad student leaves the UK to return to Czechoslovakia as the Prague Spring comes to an untidy end. His academic advisor at Cambridge is a lifelong Marxist and myriad family dramas unfold across decades while the turntable provides a soundtrack.

There’s an intriguing rumination on the idea Moral Exhibitionism. There’s some obvious weight to that. The Velvet Revolution occurs (while The Velvet Underground dissemble after their famed legacy—Brian Eno said show more everyone who bought their first album started their own band) and life proceeds. The life of Syd Barrett is an interesting metaphor for such, maybe Gorbachev as well. Rock ‘n’ Roll was very reminiscent of Stoppard’s Arcadia, Open doors leading to gardens and High Table gossip. 4.6 stars— I’d love to see this performed. show less

This is a surprisingly powerful play, with an emotional climax that I had not expected from Stoppard's earlier work. It begins as a forceful debate on the history and future of socialism, ground which Stoppard has tilled before. But then it blindsides us with a gradually but strongly developed subtext that the spirit of Pan (here personified by rock musicians, particularly Syd Barrett) is a truer agent of change than even intellectuals -- Stoppard himself -- might devise.

This edition has an 11-page introductory essay by Stoppard which you might find helpful, as the characters are caught up in historical events with which you may not be familiar.

Watching Cahoot's Macbeth has made me think about this play again.

I went to see it in a negative frame of mind. Fictional adaptation of history is what happens when writers run out of ideas. Not so, not so. This is such a good play. It imparts something that is important for people in soft societies to understand. Popular culture in a place like Czechoslovakia in the 1960s was really important. It was integral to politics.It changed lives. People fought for it and died for it.

Watching Cahoot's Macbeth has made me think about this play again.

I went to see it in a negative frame of mind. Fictional adaptation of history is what happens when writers run out of ideas. Not so, not so. This is such a good play. It imparts something that is important for people in soft societies to understand. Popular culture in a place like Czechoslovakia in the 1960s was really important. It was integral to politics.It changed lives. People fought for it and died for it.

A friend introduced me to Stoppard in school, before I moved to Czechia, and it was long after that I realized his connection. This is a lovely rediscussion of dissent in a way that hopefully was more accessible to western audiences than some of the samizdat.

This is much better on the stage than on the page. I will never not love Alice, but the relationships are *hard* to parse in text (or maybe that's just me; an actor or director would likely get a little more from it), and the politics do not come across well. I don't know if this is one of Stoppard's better works, or if it's just more technically adept than much of his previous work, or what. (Also, Plastic People of Universe, as a band, *suck*.)

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