Opening Statement: Stoppard’s Czech rock

By Julian J. Frazin
Michael Best & Friedrich

May it please the court…Tom Stoppard is one of the most prolific, intriguing, and successful playwrights of our time. From his masterpiece, “The Coast of Utopia,” a nine-hour trilogy about family life during the Russian Revolution, to “Arcadia,” his time-travel tale of love, philosophy, and landscape architecture set in an English countryside home, his works are entertaining, thought-provoking, and challenging.

In “Rock ’n’ Roll,” at the Goodman Theatre, Stoppard takes us back to his native Czechoslovakia during the occupation and overthrow of the Soviets, in which his favorite music of the ’60s and ’70s plays a huge role.

As is his wont, the playwright tracks the lives of a few characters over several years and settings. He begins in 1967 at the University of Cambridge, England, where Professor Max Morrow (Stephen Yoakam), one of the last of the Marxist loyalists, is mentor to Jan, (Timothy Edward Kane), a Czech student about to return and report to Prague, after secretly, but harmlessly, monitoring his professor’s activities for his government. As Jan departs, he leaves everything behind, taking only his treasured recordings of The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, The Doors, and The Grateful Dead.

Max and his wife, Eleanor (Mary Beth Fisher), a classics professor who suffers from incurable cancer, live with their daughter, Esme, a precocious flower child, played by Mattie Hawkinson as a child and later by Ms. Fisher, in a dual role, as an adult.

As their lives move on, Jan finds his life in Prague growing more repressive under the Soviet regime, but he does not rebel, other than refusing to sign a loyalty pledge, and continuing to play his favorite rock artists, Syd Barrett and the Czech rock band, The Plastic People of the Universe. This latter group is designated illegal and their performances banned by the government because of their morbid songs, weird dress, use of drugs, and outlandish behavior. As a result, they become a a symbol of the resistance — contributing to the eventual downfall of the Soviets.

Jan is imprisoned and eventually released to serve for many years as a bakery worker. He returns to Cambridge in 1990, bringing with him a secret dossier the Party had assembled on Max.

Eleanor died many years before and Esme grew into an attractive, though embittered divorcee, with a grown child of her own. Max continues to pontificate on the ideal Communist system.

Meanwhile, Esme and Jan realize that they have loved one another since her childhood, and the two leave immediately for Prague and a rock concert.

As usual, Stoppard works in a few discerning points of his own, and one cannot but help to agree that no political system — socialism or democracy — can work without freedom and the right to question the actions of the government without fear of punishment.

Like the earlier productions of the play in London and New York, Goodman’s presentation, under the direction of Court Theatre’s Charles Newell, uses loud rock music to separate the scenes. He goes a step further, however, creating with set designer John Culbert, rock concert staging with huge towers of flashing lights and pounding speakers.

Frankly, I felt that the simpler sets I saw on Broadway, consisting of a lovely English garden juxtaposed with a barren Czech apartment, were more effective and less distracting.

In the final analysis, for all its political implications, “Rock ’n’ Roll” turns out to be a love story. Love between a man and a woman, love of music, and, above all, love of freedom.

Also at the Goodman, in the smaller Owen Theatre, was the Chicago premiere of “The Crowd You’re In With,” Rebecca Gilman’s new play about today’s couples and their decisions on whether or not to have children.

Gilman’s 80-minute play takes place at a July 4 barbecue in the backyard of a Chicago two-flat in 2007. As the beer flows, the conversation among three couples goes on to the merits of whether or not to have children, and how the influence of your friends and seemingly minor decisions can affect and transform the rest of your life.

As usual, Gilman’s latest work is relevant, challenging, and thought-provoking. I rest my case.

Final Verdict:
Rock ’n’ Roll 3 1/2 gavels
The Crowd You’re In With 3 1/2 gavels