ROCK 'N' ROLL.
London.
ROCK ‘N’ ROLL
by Tom Stoppard.
Duke of York’s Theatre.
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Mat Wed, Sat, Sun 3pm.
Runs 3hr 15min One interval.
TICKETS: 0870 060 6623.
Review: Timothy Ramsden 27 July.
Rock ‘n’ Roll between-scenes enlivens play that’s more of a dirge.
There are several plays in this Tom Stoppard/Trevor Nunn production, and none comes clearly into focus. Is it about the personal and political exemplified in a Communist academic in Cambridge and his family? Or about the ease of Communist convictions in England compared with anti-government beliefs in Czechoslovakia from the Russian overthrow of Alexander Dubcek’s 1968 ‘Prague Spring’ liberalisation onward (beliefs which, with Czech Jan, do lead to convictions)?
Or the role of rock music in expressing different sorts of liberty from state control, up to the Rolling Stones 1990 Prague gig? Complexity’s fine but sticking a number of aspects together and then talking through them with characters who often aren’t made to matter, and with neither a unifying nor a multiple focus, doesn’t make for the dramatic.
There’s a desperate need in this talk play for the wit of Shaw. Or of Stoppard. Shaw could be flippant, but his wit also made points forcefully. Force comes with passion and this long, languorous piece has no evident passion behind it. The rock music, with projections of record-label info in anorak detail, is mainly confined to covering longish scene changes on Robert Jones’ revolving set which at least makes the contrast between trellised Cambridge safety and shabbily unsafe Prague.
Stoppard’s elegance is here, and his keenness to debate important issues; including a body-and-soul tussle between Max’s materialist Communism and his wife’s belief in a non-material essence or soul, explored through a deeply personal history. But Brian Cox’s explosive certainty and Sinead Cusack’s quiet firmness as Eleanor are the only performances imposing themselves as individuals.
With Rufus Sewell’s oppressed Czech Jan it’s a question of which will set in first: inaudibility or utter stasis. His increasing gloominess goes beyond sympathy into alienating self-absorption. Rock ‘n’ Roll may mean more to him than political activity, but it’s a music that’s never had a more cement-footed addict.
Other actors work efficiently, but their characters can never live because they are all part of Stoppard’s thesis; chessboard pieces with no autonomy; the opposite of the point the play, and its title, should make.
Piper/Policeman 1/Stephen: Edward Hogg.
Younger Esme/Alice: Alice Eve.
Jan: Rufus Sewell.
Max: Brian Cox.
Eleanor/Older Esme: Sinead Cusack.
Gillian/Magda/Deirdre: Miranda Colchester.
Interrogator/Nigel: Anthony Calf.
Ferdinand: Peter Sullivan.
Milan/Policeman 2/Jaroslav: Martin Chamberlain.
Lenka: Nicole Ansari.
Candida: Louisse Bangay.
Director: Trevor Nunn.
Designer: Robert Jones.
Lighting: Howard Harrison.
Sound: Ian Dickinson.
Costume: Emma Ryott.
Dialect coach: Charmian Hoare.
Company voice work: Patsy Rodenburg.
Czech language coach: Jarmila Karas.
Associate director: Paul Robinson.
2006-07-31 10:48:47