ROCK 'n' ROLL by Tom Stoppard

West Coast Premiere: ROCK ’N’ ROLL by Tom Stoppard. Director Carey Perloff. American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.), 415 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94108. 415-749-2228, or at www.act-sf.org. September 11 through October 18, 2008

A STOPPARD/PERLOFF LOVE AFFAIR

Eleanor (René Augesen) is deep in thought as her husband Max (Jack Willis) and her student Lenka (Delia MacDougall) make a connection in the West Coast premiere of Tom Stoppard's Rock 'n' Roll at A.C.T.

When you attend a Tom Stoppard play, always be prepared for an intellectual and most often entertaining evening. Going to see a Carey Perloff directed Stoppard play is assurance you will see an over produced staging reflecting Perloff's love affair with his plays. "Rock `n' Roll" is the latest Perloff/Stoppard gem following on the heels of the successful staging of "Travesties."

"Rock `n' Roll" is not about the history of the genre, but rather a metaphor for the progress of social upheaval wrought by individuals in a totalitarian communist regime. In this instance Czechoslovakia, the country of Stoppard's birth, placed in juxtaposition with freedom in England, his adopted country, and Cambridge in particular. The period extends from the Prague Spring of 1968 to the Velvet Revolution of 1990. Into the political/intellectual milieu he has woven two charming, bittersweet love stories.

The ingenious set (Douglas W. Schmidt), lighting design (Robert Wierzel), costumes (Alex Jarger) and sound design are cleverly integrated to differentiate the generations as they progress. Projection on the back wall indicating the year is supplemented with the year also flashing across the entire stage with bits of Pink Floyd with Syd Barrett, Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead etc. music accompanying the multiple time frame scene changes enhanced b the costumes indicative of the specific generations. The beautiful Cambridge garden and Prague apartment scenery silently move into place from the right and left side of the stage.

The play centers around Jan (Manoel Felciano), a Czech university student, studying at Cambridge, a protégé of fervent Marxist Professor Max Morrow (Jack Willis). Jan returns to Prague when the city is occupied by Soviet tanks. His great love is his vinyl record collection of rock ‘n’ roll musicians such as Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones and The Velvet Underground. While his contemporary Ferdinand (Jud Williford) and others are protesting tyranny and censorship, Jan becomes attached to the Plastic People of the Universe, a local obscure, bizarrely dressed rock band who are beaten and thrown in jail. Jan’s love of the “socially negative music” on the vinyl records leads him into political activism and his eventual downfall.

Stoppard makes a strong argument that the love of individualism embodied in the rock ‘n’ roll movement is the catalyst that fomented the Prague rebellion. Woven into that concept are philosophical differentiations between the mind (consciousness) and the body by Max’s wife Eleanor (Rene Augesen), professor of classical Greek poetry, who is dying of cancer. As Max obstinately defends Communism, even while the Soviet Union is disintegrating, Stoppard uses Max’s vocal outbursts as a sounding board for the ideals of other characters, including Lenka (Delia MacDougall) another Czech student who eventually becomes his live-in lover.

There are two other love stories intertwined with the intellectual milieu including Jan for older Esme (Rene' Augesen) who has been cuckold by husband Nigel ( Anthony Fusco) and the father of their daughter Alice (Summer Serafin). Rene' Augesen who plays Eleanor is brilliant as Max’s wife as she deteriorates physically from her cancer and its treatment and as the older Esme. Jack Willis dominates the stage with his physical stature and booming voice but is only partially convincing as a die-hard communist. The remainder of the cast handles their roles with professional aplomb and Delia McDougall has a delicious verbal encounter with Willis. Running time 2 hour and 45 minutes.

Production to Transfer to Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company with A.C.T. Core Acting Company in November.
Courtesy of TheatreWorld Internet Magazine