Plot summary
The play is concerned with the significance of rock and roll in the emergence of the socialist movement in Eastern-Bloc Czechoslovakia between the Prague Spring of 1968 and the Velvet Revolution of 1989. Taking place in Cambridge, England and in Prague, the play contrasts the attitudes of a young Czech PhD 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.
The play takes place over several decades, from the late 1960s until 1990, ending with a concert given by the Rolling Stones that year in Prague. Recurrent references are made to a glimpse by one of the main characters of the young Syd Barrett performing Golden Hair. Barrett's physical and mental decline also plays a role in the drama (Barrett in fact died during the play's run). The underground Czech group the Plastic People of the Universe are held up by another character as an ideal of resistance to Communism. The poetry of Sappho is another recurrent motif; its pagan sensualism is implicitly compared with the anarchic erotic force of rock music.
One of the characters, a Czech writer, is named Ferdinand as an homage to Václav Havel. Havel wrote three plays with a protagonist named Ferdinand Vaněk, a stand-in for Havel himself. These plays were distributed by samizdat and became a symbol of the resistance. A number of Havel's friends then wrote their own Vaněk plays, with Ferdinand Vaněk as a character. [1] Stoppard continues in that tradition.
This play is one of several works in Stoppard's oeuvre concerned with artistic dissent against the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia: Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth also addresses this, as do Every Good Boy Deserves Favour and Professional Foul .
Original production
The original production was staged at the Royal Court Theatre and ran from 3 June until 15 July 2006. It then transferred to the Duke of York's Theatre. The production was directed by Trevor Nunn and featured the following cast:
Taking over from the principal actors mid-run were:
The production closed on 25 February 2007 at the Duke of York's Theatre before an announced transfer to Broadway in the autumn of 2007.
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. Jagger has worked with Stoppard previously, having produced the film Enigma , for which Stoppard wrote the screenplay, and has, along with his production company Jagged Films, "approached" Stoppard "for the movie rights" to the play Rock 'n' Roll. [2]
Other productions
The San Francisco production, directed by Carey Perloff, opened at the American Conservatory Theater on 17 September 2008. [3] It then moved to Boston's Huntington Theatre Company, who co-produced the production, on 7 November. [4]
The first UK production of the play outside London was at the Library Theatre in Manchester from 13 February to 14 March 2009. [5]
Teatre Lliure of Barcelona presented Rock 'n' Roll, in Catalan and directed by Àlex Rigola, as the opening show for the 2008–2009 season between 18 September and 19 October. [6]
Joy Zinoman, Founding Artistic Director of The Studio Theatre in Washington, DC, will direct the play beginning 22 April 2009. [7]
The Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas produced Rock 'n' Roll beginning 24 April 2009, directed by Alley Theatre Artistic Director Gregory Boyd. [8]
Goodman Theatre of Chicago hosted a production from 2 May through 7 June 2009. [9]
The Canadian premiere was at Dawson College in Montréal Quebec in January 2009 directed by Douglas Buchanan. [10]
The Canadian Stage Company of Toronto, Ontario featured Rock 'n' Roll in their 2009–2010 season between 28 September and 24 October. [11]
ACT Theatre in Seattle produced the play as part of their 2009 Season between 9 October and 8 November 2009. [12]
Park Square Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota produced Rock 'n' Roll beginning 15 January 2010, directed by Mary M. Finnerty. [13]
A production was staged at The Questors Theatre in Ealing, West London, from 19 December 2009 to 2 January 2010. [14]
The San Jose Stage Company presented a new production of Rock 'n' Roll from 10 February to 7 March 2010. [15]
Horipro presented the first Japan production of the play at the Setagaya public theatre in Setagaya, Tokyo, from 3 to 29 August 2010. [16]
Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, North Carolina will produce Rock 'n' Roll, directed by Simon Donoghue, beginning 24 February 2011. [17]
St. Louis Actors' Studio (stlas.org) Produced Rock 'n' Roll in November 2010
National Theater of Kosovo will also produce Rock 'n' Roll beginning January 2011.
Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi Oyuncuları (YUO) started rehearsals in November 2010 for a Turkish production.
The Kavinoky Theatre in Buffalo, New York produced "Rock 'N' Roll" in 2011 from 4 March to 3 April
The Sydney Theatre, Sydney, production by the Melbourne Theatre Company from 11 April 2008 to 17 May 2008
Moscow's production opened 22 September 2011 in RAMT (Russian Academic Youth Theatre) [18]
The Guildford Acting School produced Rock 'N' Roll in 2023 from 25 May to 27 May which featured MA & MFA Acting students in collaboration with BA Theatre Production and MA Stage & Production Management students https://www.gsauk.org/events/39601AJRRLKSVBMNJSKBSJSPPVNLVSKDK/book
Hampstead Theatre produced Rock 'N' Roll in 2023 from 6 December 2023 to 27 January 2024. [19] Nina Raine directed. The cast included Nancy Carroll, Nathaniel Parker, and Jacob Fortune-Lloyd. [20]
Sir Tom Stoppard is a Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and political freedom, often delving into the deeper philosophical thematics of society. Stoppard has been a playwright of the National Theatre and is one of the most internationally performed dramatists of his generation. He was knighted for his contribution to theatre by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997.
Václav Havel was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright and dissident. Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissolution of Czechoslovakia on 31 December, before he became the first president of the Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003. He was the first democratically elected president of either country after the fall of communism. As a writer of Czech literature, he is known for his plays, essays and memoirs.
The Duke of York's Theatre is a West End theatre in St Martin's Lane, in the City of Westminster, London. It was built for Frank Wyatt and his wife, Violet Melnotte, who retained ownership of the theatre until her death in 1935. Designed by the architect Walter Emden, it opened on 10 September 1892 as the Trafalgar Square Theatre, and was renamed Trafalgar Theatre in 1894. The following year, it became the Duke of York's to honour the future King George V.
Sinéad Moira Cusack is an Irish actress. Her first acting roles were at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, before moving to London in 1969 to join the Royal Shakespeare Company. She has won the Critics' Circle and Evening Standard Awards for her performance in Sebastian Barry's Our Lady of Sligo.
Barrandov Studios is a set of film studios in Prague, Czech Republic. It is the largest film studio in the country and one of the largest in Europe.
Edward Petherbridge is an English actor, writer and artist. Among his many roles, he portrayed Lord Peter Wimsey in the 1987 BBC television adaptations of Dorothy L. Sayers' novels, and Guildenstern in Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. At the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1980, he was a memorable Newman Noggs in the company's adaptation of Dickens's The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.
The Coast of Utopia is a 2002 trilogy of plays: Voyage, Shipwreck, and Salvage, written by Tom Stoppard with focus on the philosophical debates in pre-revolution Russia between 1833 and 1866. It was the recipient of the 2007 Tony Award for Best Play. The title comes from a chapter in Avrahm Yarmolinsky's book Road to Revolution: A Century of Russian Radicalism (1959).
The Plastic People of the Universe (PPU) is a Czech rock band from Prague. They are considered the foremost representatives of Prague's underground culture (1968–1989), which defied Czechoslovakia's Communist regime. Members of the band often suffered serious repercussions, including arrests and prosecution, because of their non-conformist ideals. The group continues to perform, despite the death in 2001 of its founder, main composer, and bassist, Milan Hlavsa. Up to 2023, they had released nine studio albums and over a dozen live albums.
Professional Foul is a television play written by Czech-born, British playwright Tom Stoppard. It was broadcast on 21 September 1977 in BBC 2's Play of the Week series.
Edmund Stoppard is an English actor. He is the son of playwright Tom Stoppard and doctor Miriam, Lady Hogg.
Emma Georgina Annalies Fielding is an English actress.
The Belarus Free Theatre is a Belarusian underground theatre group.
The theatre of the Czech Republic has a rich tradition in all genres, including drama, opera, ballet and dance, puppet theatre, black light theatre etc.
Toby Schmitz is an Australian actor and playwright.
Fiona Button is an English actress. She is best known for playing Rose Defoe in The Split.
The Vaněk plays are a set of plays in which the character Ferdinand Vaněk is central. Vaněk first appeared in the play Audience by Václav Havel. He subsequently appeared in three other plays by Havel, as well as plays by his friends and colleagues, including Pavel Landovský and Tom Stoppard.
Lucerna Music Bar is a concert club in Prague, Czech Republic. It is housed within Lucerna Palace.
Jan Novák is a Czech-American writer, screenwriter and playwright. He writes in both Czech and English, frequently translating his work. He has received awards in both the United States and the Czech Republic. He has worked closely with such figures as Václav Havel and Miloš Forman.
Patrick Kwok-Choon is a Canadian actor, best known for his recurring roles as Perry Crofte in the television adaptation of the horror Western comic book miniseries Wynonna Earp and as lieutenant commander Gen Rhys in the CBS science fiction drama Star Trek: Discovery.
Censorship in the Czech Republic had been highly active until 17 November 1989 and the fall of Communism in the former Czechoslovakia. Czech Republic was ranked as the 13th most free country in the World Press Freedom Index in 2014.