The Stupendous (yet Pretentious) Stoppard

The last time I saw a Tom Stoppard play I was in 8th grade, and I swore I’d never go to another one. The dialogue in Arcadia so perplexed me—with all its spitfire literary and scholarly allusions—that I nearly left in tears. I felt stupid and frustrated. Eleven years and a college education later, I revisited the esoteric Stoppard, excited at the promise that I might actually understand why people love him. The good news: I got it this time, and liked it. Studio Theatre put on an excellent performance, using a theater-in-the-round to showcase the script. Dramaturg Sarah Wallace writes:

“…the audience is invited to truly listen to the artistry of Stoppard’s language, to penetrate the play’s complexities. After stripping away everything except the play’s most essential images, an accentuated emotional core shines through.”

I liked the staging; I liked the acting (save for the lead’s inconsistent Czech accent); and I liked the plot, which is, at its essence, a love story. I liked the script too, though only because I had taken an Eastern European literature class in college, wherein I learned all about communism, the Prague Spring and Velvet Revolution, Václav Havel and Perestroika. I had no previous knowledge of the Plastic People of the Universe or the musician Syd Barrett or the themes of Greek poet Sappho, but my knowledge of the other stuff proved enough of a frame-of-reference to make sense of such unknown allusions.

My opinion: Studio Theatre’s production of Rock ‘n’ Roll is solid and I recommend it, BUT only if before you enter the theater, you spend 30 minutes or so reading up on the topics/people I mentioned above. That way, instead of spending the whole play trying to figure out who this Dubcek guy is, you can relax and really appreciate Stoppard’s use of language. (The program gives a decent amount of background info, but if you’re like me and show up 5 minutes before the play starts, you don’t have time to read it.) The fact that we have to do some pretty thorough background reading or be some crazy academic who knows everything about everything is what still frustrates me about Stoppard. His language is so good, but audible only if one can navigate through his maze of academic excess. It’s a prentious style of writing, but there’s genius within.

Rock ‘n’ Roll runs through June 7, 2009. Click here to buy tickets. (Don’t worry about seat location since it’s a circular stage)