It's Not Only Rock'n'Roll

Billie and I went to see the Tom Stoppard play ‘Rock’n’Roll’ at the Duke of Yorks theatre last night. It’s a vastly ambitious piece, with a wealth of Stoppard's disparate fascinations thrown together seemingly randomly. So you get a history of Czechoslovakia from ’68-’90, a meditation on the musical obsessions of an anglophile Czech student, ruminations on the ancient Greek lyric poetry of Sappho, debates about communism, espionage, love, loyalty and betrayal. All overseen by the spectral presence/absence of Syd Barret. It would have been all too easy for this intellectual hotch potch to have turned into an utterly confusing mess, but Stoppard overlays his concerns onto the solid dramatic foundation of A Story (Wow!): i.e. The tale of the developing relationships within three generations of an academic family in Cambridge. It’s the sympathetic nature of these generational observations that allows the catherine wheel of ideas to stay pinned to the tree.


The performances of Brian Cox and Rufus Sewell were exceptional, quite possibly the best I’ve ever seen, and there was more than able support from the rest of the cast especially Sinead Cusack. The challenge of fitting in so many scenes in different places/times was met by the use of a clever revolving stage, and the device of lowering a screen between scenes. Onto which was projected the recording details of the music that was played. This included Syd Barrett, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and even a dodgy ballad by Guns’n’Roses. I found this slightly confusing, as the songs didn’t fit into the chronology of the play, so in the early ‘80’s a track from The Beachboys recorded in 1966 was played? Ah! musical pedantry how sweet thou art. Still, didn't detract from an excellent evening.