- Paperback: 144 pages
- Publisher: Faber and Faber; Royal Court programme text edition (15 Jun 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0571232701
- ISBN-13: 978-0571232703
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.4 x 1.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 878,685 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
"'The acceptable face of colossal braininess.' Daily Telegraph"
Product Description
Tom Stoppard's provocative new play spans the recent history of Czechoslovakia between the Prague Spring and the Velvet Revolution - but from the double perspective of Prague, where a rock 'n' roll band came to symbolise resistance to the regime, and the British left, represented by a Communist philosopher at Cambridge.
Rock 'n' Roll premieres at The Royal Court Theatre, London, in June 2006.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
This is the second play that I have read by Tom Stoppard and I found it quick-paced and well written. Anyone who's interested in Soviet history will enjoy it as it conjures up some great images of political and philosophical discussions about communism from both a Czech and British perspective.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
8 reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Less Intellect, More Drama Needed
30 Jan 2008
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
On January 11, 2008, I saw Tom Stoppard's Rock `n' Roll on Broadway with Brian Cox and Sinead Cusack in starring roles. Stoppard was born in Czechoslovakia and left with his family at an early age to escape from the Hitler terror. The play is about the Communist rule in his native country and the power of rock and roll to help breach cracks in the totalitarian regime. The music of the young was probably more influential and revolutionary than the endless petitions by the dissidents.
As usual with a Stoppard play, it is talky, clever, more focused on the political and philosophical than the truly dramatic. There's no question that Stoppard is bright and witty, but unfortunately his plays can be murky at times. The scenes in the play are separated by segments of rock and roll tracks by the Rolling Stones, the Plastic People, Pink Floyd, John Lennon, and others.
The women in this play and his "Coast of Utopia" are more vibrant, more dramatically potent, more believable, and draw more of an emotional response from the audience than his male characters who blather on and on, and who are more political, more theoretical, and ineffective. One scene near the end of Act One between Max and his wife Eleanor in which she confronts him with the cancer killing her is an emotionally draining one for the audience and the dramatic highpoint of the play. Stoppard's women get to you in your gut. His men at times seem to be drowning in gibberish.
There are few playwrights as daring, innovative, and intellectual as Stoppard, but there are other playwrights who are more dramatically and emotionally disturbing.
As usual with a Stoppard play, it is talky, clever, more focused on the political and philosophical than the truly dramatic. There's no question that Stoppard is bright and witty, but unfortunately his plays can be murky at times. The scenes in the play are separated by segments of rock and roll tracks by the Rolling Stones, the Plastic People, Pink Floyd, John Lennon, and others.
The women in this play and his "Coast of Utopia" are more vibrant, more dramatically potent, more believable, and draw more of an emotional response from the audience than his male characters who blather on and on, and who are more political, more theoretical, and ineffective. One scene near the end of Act One between Max and his wife Eleanor in which she confronts him with the cancer killing her is an emotionally draining one for the audience and the dramatic highpoint of the play. Stoppard's women get to you in your gut. His men at times seem to be drowning in gibberish.
There are few playwrights as daring, innovative, and intellectual as Stoppard, but there are other playwrights who are more dramatically and emotionally disturbing.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
A Stoppard Miss
5 Mar 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I saw a production of the play recently in St. Paul. I couldn't hear most of it--my problem, not Stoppard's--so I bought a copy to read and I was disappointed.
The play covers a very long period of time in many short scenes with many, too many, characters. The lives of the individual characters are not presented clearly. I had trouble matching couples as they fell in and out of love over several decades.
The play has a thesis, that music, that rock 'n roll, was at the heart of the significant political events that culminated in the independence of Czechoslovakia. I do not know nearly enough Czech history to form my own opinion but Stoppard does not make the case. So the play is not moving. Most of us would want to sympathize with the rebels but Stoppard's narrative is muddy. I came away with the view that Stoppard thinks the rock and rollers were effective precisely because they were not political. Maybe so but I don't see it.
Stoppard's usual wit is largely lacking. It would be unfair to say the play is preachy but Stoppard apparently felt he had to explain at length things that younger spectators/readers wouldn't know. The old Marxist professor tells us everything that has happened since 1917.
The play covers a very long period of time in many short scenes with many, too many, characters. The lives of the individual characters are not presented clearly. I had trouble matching couples as they fell in and out of love over several decades.
The play has a thesis, that music, that rock 'n roll, was at the heart of the significant political events that culminated in the independence of Czechoslovakia. I do not know nearly enough Czech history to form my own opinion but Stoppard does not make the case. So the play is not moving. Most of us would want to sympathize with the rebels but Stoppard's narrative is muddy. I came away with the view that Stoppard thinks the rock and rollers were effective precisely because they were not political. Maybe so but I don't see it.
Stoppard's usual wit is largely lacking. It would be unfair to say the play is preachy but Stoppard apparently felt he had to explain at length things that younger spectators/readers wouldn't know. The old Marxist professor tells us everything that has happened since 1917.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
A Fine Play by Stoppard
6 Jan 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought this play because I was going to see the Huntington Theater production in Boston and as my hearing deteriorates I like to read plays before seeing them. This is really a fine play and although it deals with big ideas it is a lot more passionate and less cerebral than I expected of Stoppard. I'm not much of a play-goer, but for what it's worth it was one of the best plays I have seen in recent years. I found it well worth my time and money to read the book, and it was interesting to see some differences between the Broadway version (documented in the book) and the Boston version in the last scene. Both scenes work well, but I think the Boston version is slightly tighter.
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