Stoppard's 'Rock 'n' Roll' gets rockin' revival at Goodman
Watching a Tom Stoppard play means putting on your thinking cap.
The brainy, Czech-born, England-bred writer crafts erudite dramas filled with big ideas and droll dialogue that dazzle the intellect, but don't always touch the heart.
Not so with "Rock 'n' Roll," Stoppard's cerebral, sensitive drama in a revival directed by Charles Newell. His canny, emotionally accessible, expertly cast production makes for an auspicious Goodman Theatre debut.
It takes me a while to warm up to Stoppard. Not so Newell.
He had me at "Kashmir."
Listening to Led Zeppelin's AOR staple during the preshow, it occurred to me that this Stoppard play might inspire something more than polite esteem and respectful detachment. Stoppard's kinder, gentler (eternally self-aware) characters have something to do with that. But really, it's Newell and his cast - particularly the excellent Timothy Edward Kane, a Chicago-area constant who richly deserves the spotlight this play affords - who supply "Rock 'n' Roll's" heart.
Accompanied by a soundtrack featuring The Rolling Stones, The Velvet Underground and Pink Floyd (with and without Syd Barrett, whose spirit is palpable throughout), "Rock 'n' Roll" opens in August, 1968, as Soviet tanks rolled into Czechoslovakia, cutting short its Prague spring, that brief period of liberalization heralded by the brief tenure of reformist leader Alexander Dubèek. The play concludes in 1990, one year after Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution, as the Stones rolled into Prague to headline a stadium show, which John Culbert expertly suggests with a minimalist but evocative set with a backdrop comprised of stacks of speakers.
Typical of Stoppard ("The Coast of Utopia," "Arcadia," "The Real Thing"), the play tackles multiple issues: music, politics, revolution and love, especially love - of rock 'n' roll, of a philosophical ideal, of another person.
It centers around a Czechoslovakian student named Jan, played by the always impressive Kane with his trademark low-key charisma and innate humanity. A rock-loving, freedom-loving socialist, Jan's a protégé of Cambridge University professor and unswerving Communist Max (Stephen Yoakam).
As the Soviets crush Prague's blossoms, Jan returns - his beloved LPs in tow - to his homeland determined to save socialism. There, the reluctant dissident meets an enthusiastic rebel Ferdinand (Kareem Bandealy) who tries to enlist him in the struggle against the repressive Soviet-backed regime. Jan chooses instead to occupy himself with his favorite Czech rock band, The Plastic People of the Universe, an actual band whose members spent time in prison for promoting anti-Socialist ideas through their music.
Back in England, Max continues to champion Marxism even as it's corrupted and discredited. His classics professor wife Eleanor (a searing Mary Beth Fisher) battles cancer, while his teenage daughter Esme (Mattie Hawkinson) discovers sex, drugs and psychedelic rock. Not necessarily in that order.
The action shifts between Prague, where Jan lives in a real-world apartment surrounded by LPs, and Cambridge, England, where Max lives in the metaphoric ivory tower surrounded by books. (That the true believer keeps his distance while the ambivalent protégé finds himself in the fray is entirely intentional.)
Years pass. Esme (played as an adult by Fisher) marries a fussy journalist Nigel (Thomas J. Cox) and has a daughter Alice (Hawkinson). Back in Prague, Jan he finds himself hounded by the secret police and imprisoned as a subversive.
Reunited as the Iron Curtain falls, Jan and Max emerge less naive, less idealistic and more forgiving. Like the Rolling Stones, they are a little less than what they were. Yet they have carved out a place for themselves that seems to satisfy and must suffice.
<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Video</h2> <ul class="video"> <li><a href="/multimedia/?category=1&type=video&item=245">Clip from 'Rock 'n' Roll' at the Goodman </a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <p class="factboxheadblack">"Rock 'n' Roll"</p> <p class="News"><b>Location:</b> Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St., Chicago</p> <p class="News"><b>Showtimes:</b> 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7:30 p.m. p.m. Sundays; through June 7; also 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays, May 26, and June 2; 2 p.m. Thursdays, May 28 and June 4; no 7:30 p.m. shows Sundays, May 31 or June 7 </p> <p class="News"><b>Running time:</b> About 2 hours, 45 minutes, with intermission</p> <p class="News"><b>Tickets:</b> $25-$75</p> <p class="News"><b>Box office:</b> (312) 443-3800 or <a href="http://www.goodmantheatre.org" target="new">goodmantheatre.org</a></p> <p class="News"><b>Rating:</b> For adults </p>