Rock ’n’ Roll @ Hampstead Theatre, London
Feeling the glow of joining the chattering classes and intelligentsia just by being at a Tom Stoppard play and surely a mighty increase of brain cells too; this new play examines the role of music in the Cold War and in political dissent.
In a sweep across post-World War Two history and politics, Tom Stoppard takes us on a journey through academia and the elite with a lot of vinyl — and cassette tapes. Music matters is his essential premise.
Max (Nathaniel Parker) is an academic married to the equally academically brilliant Eleanor (Nancy Carroll). One of Max’s students, Jan (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd) has to return to his home country of Czechoslovakia. Only it’s 1968 and the Prague Spring is in full swing. He takes with him a whole collection of books and records, which get him into a lot of trouble with the Communist regime, leading to monitoring and running by the secret police.
Then there’s Max and Eleanor’s privileged and hippy daughter Esme (Phoebe Horn) who sees Pan or perhaps Syd Barrett, annoys her studious parents by playing her records too loudly and in a druggy haze ends up very young, pregnant, in a commune. Eventually an older version of Esme (Nancy Carroll) ends up back in the family home, caring for Max in his confused old age, with her very clever daughter Alice (Phoebe Horn). Esme’s still battling (much like Eleanor) for her place/role in the world.
Meanwhile, Eleanor has had to battle institutional sexism, predatory clever and showy female students (Lenka, played by Anna Krippa), and her own body in fighting cancer. Even time.
In freedom, music is just a noise, an irritant or a means of self-expression; under a politically repressive regime, sharing music means sharing ideals and dangerous political ideas with a lot of personal risk. The moment when police have desecrated Jan’s flat and taken some of his things (such as suspect books) is shocking.
Uniquely for a modern play, it has a happy ending. Max ends up with Lenka, Lenka gets her man — though not until after a fight with Eleanor during her life time; Jan and Esme finally end up happily together; Max knows that Jan was watching and reporting on him and forgives him; nor will Max give into the harsher ideals of the hard Left, whilst cherishing an ideal socialism. The music plays on.
People and their ideas are one here — and the expression of ideas is really important. Stoppard makes you work really hard, really listen and enjoy it. What does it mean to be Left leaning when the Left seems to have betrayed you and the people it claims to represent? A bit buried under the structure of the play is a deeper idea about how Western rock and roll encouraged people to hope, dream, keep going, think of a different life. This theme gets a bit lost under the complicated personalities and relationships, but it’s still there — like a beating heart.
Watch too for the stage hands who transform bookcases neatly into open brickwork with lots of 1980’s greenery during the interval. The ‘in the round’ set is very very clever!
