Rock'n'Roll is a play by Tom Stoppard, first performed in 2006.
It's 1968. Max Morrow is a communist and author who teaches at Cambridge University, as does his wife Eleanor. In communist Czechoslovakia, the liberalisation of the "Prague Spring" abruptly ends when other Warssaw Pact nations invade and oust leader Alexander Dubček.
Jan is a young Czechoslovakian man, one of Max's students, who leaves Cambridge to return to his home country in the wake of the invasion. But despite his studies, Jan's more interested in music than politics.
As the years roll past, the play follows Max's family in Cambridge alongside Jan's life in Prague. Max's faith in communism is unwavering and fierce, whereas Jan finds that, much as he might wish otherwise, the world won't let him focus on music without politics getting in the way.
Their paths reconnect over the years, as the play follows each group of characters through to 1990 and the fall of communism.
- Acting for Two:
- As per Stoppard's text, the actor playing Eleanor in act one should play her daughter Esme in act two. Likewise, the actor who was playing Esme in act one should play her daughter Alice, Eleanor's granddaughter, in act two.
- The text directly suggests that "further doubling (or trebling) is optional", mentioning that the Royal Court run had Milan, the waiter and policeman #2 all played by the same actor ("however, this is not the preferred option").
- All in the Manual: The play has numerous time skips. The script notes the year of each scene, but the dialogue doesn't tell the audience. Some productions find ways to add it in — the original run worked around this by projecting the year onto a curtain before each scene starts.
- Armor-Piercing Question:
- Berserk Button:
- Country Matters: After Lenka blatantly flirts with Max, his wife Eleanor casually ends their conversation by bluntly warning her off, including the play's only use of the word "cunt". Apparently Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance will be shoved there if she doesn't take the hint. It's even more powerful because the conversation pivots without warning, and the text specifies that it should be delivered in a superficially pleasant tone.Eleanor: [pleasantly] And, Lenka, don't try to shag my husband till I'm dead, or I'll stick the art of motorcycle maintenance up your rancid cunt, there's a dear.
- Destroying The Evidence: When Jan finally returns to Cambridge, he brings Max's file with him, and hands it over to Max.
- Fictional Document:
- Generational Saga: The UK scenes in the first act focused on Max, Eleanor and their daughter Esme. The second act, a decade later, focuses on Esme and her daughter Alice. One actor plays both daughters, and another plays both mothers.
- The Ghost:
- Historical Domain Character:
- Jirous, who never directly appears but interacts with Jan and Ferdinand between scenes, is Ivan Jirous
, a real dissident. - The piper who appears at the very start of the play is later identified as Syd Barrett, although there's a hint of Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane about the scene.
- Jirous, who never directly appears but interacts with Jan and Ferdinand between scenes, is Ivan Jirous
- Internal Reveal:
- Killed Offscreen: Eleanor dies offstage before the final scene in act one (i.e. in 1976 or 1977).
- Smash Cut: The text directly states that scene breaks should end in smash cuts. Scenes are followed by thirty to sixty seconds of music in a blackout, with 'sleeve notes' projected to accompany them. The next scene then launches immediately, midway through the song, "without fades or builds", jumping straight in - light and sound both start at the same moment.
- Time Skip: Act one begins in 1968, with scenes advancing a year or so each time. It ends in 1977, with act two immediately skipping a decade to start in 1987.
- The Topic of Cancer: Eleanor's cancer casts a long shadow over her act one appearances.Eleanor: They've cut, cauterised and zapped away my breasts, my ovaries, my womb, half my bowel, and a nutmeg out of my brain, and I am undiminished, I'm exactly who I've always been. I am not my body.
