I want to see Rock & Roll so badly. So very, very, very badly. Stoppard is my drug of choice, theater-wise, and it's been a while since I've had a fix, though this one looks set to exceed my expectations. After all, who better to juxtapose the lives of a Marxist philosopher and an anti-communist rock band than Sir Tom?
I heard that they are in discussions to take it to New York. I love the way he is so interested in ideas and deals with them so confidently, especially in this piece and in Travesties. Mind you, I did take a strong dislike to the guy a few years ago when I saw a photo of him with Thatcher. It's difficult to tally with the content of this play, that's for sure; as Michael Billington says, the portrayal of the barely repentant CP Marxist is very sympathetic.
Actually a google for Stoppard and Thatcher turns up this very interesting article, inevitably from the Guardian again:
In the mid-70s Stoppard became active on behalf of Soviet dissidents and visited the Sakharovs in Moscow in 1977; he supported Charter 77 - a pressure group campaigning for human rights in Czechoslovakia - and went to Prague to meet the recently released playwright Václav Havel, whose work he admired. From this involvement came Every Good Boy Deserves Favour , his musical-theatrical collaboration with André Previn, and the TV play Professional Foul. It was the
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You actually took a strong dislike to the man simply because you saw a photograph of him standing next to Margaret Thatcher? Wouldn't you call that a bit... hasty? I mean, sure, if I happened upon a picture of Stoppard giving the thumbs up with his arm around, say, Charles Taylor, then I think my opinion would turn, but, uh, the Baroness? Different story. Fewer death squads.
I wouldn't say that I like Stoppard and his work expressly for his/its politics -- I can get that anywhere -- but I appreciate the fact that he's thought his political positions through before casting them into art which, as I doubt you need be assured, is not the case with every modern playwright. The promotion of human liberty is one of his chief drives, and, whether or not you or I agree with him, he's built a solid foundation of ideas using conservatism as a means to that end.
This recent Telegraph profile does him justice as well:And then, intriguingly, there is "Conservative Tom" - the bold exception to the arts world's monolithic Leftist orthodoxy, the
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I think you maybe don't understand quite how much opprobium a great deal of British people reserve for that woman. One of the reasons I moved back to the UK is so that I will (hopefully) be here to join in the celebrations on the day that she dies!
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Actually a google for Stoppard and Thatcher turns up this very interesting article, inevitably from the Guardian again:
In the mid-70s Stoppard became active on behalf of Soviet dissidents and visited the Sakharovs in Moscow in 1977; he supported Charter 77 - a pressure group campaigning for human rights in Czechoslovakia - and went to Prague to meet the recently released playwright Václav Havel, whose work he admired. From this involvement came Every Good Boy Deserves Favour , his musical-theatrical collaboration with André Previn, and the TV play Professional Foul. It was the ( ... )
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I wouldn't say that I like Stoppard and his work expressly for his/its politics -- I can get that anywhere -- but I appreciate the fact that he's thought his political positions through before casting them into art which, as I doubt you need be assured, is not the case with every modern playwright. The promotion of human liberty is one of his chief drives, and, whether or not you or I agree with him, he's built a solid foundation of ideas using conservatism as a means to that end.
This recent Telegraph profile does him justice as well:And then, intriguingly, there is "Conservative Tom" - the bold exception to the arts world's monolithic Leftist orthodoxy, the ( ... )
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