Nov. 11, 2009 - Issue #734: Hanky panky

ROCK ‘N’ ROLL: Revolutionary rock

Tom Stoppard's Rock 'n' Roll infuses political upheval with rock music

Belinda Cornish has made her name in this town for her sharp wit in Die-Nasty's improv and her clever writing and performing with Panties Productions, so it's maybe a little bit surprising that she's making her debut on the city's grandest stage with Tom Stoppard's Rock 'n' Roll. Stoppard—author of, most famously, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead—certainly has a comedic streak in him, but despite its rambunctious title, Rock 'n' Roll isn't exactly the kind briskly comic stuff that Cornish owns so well—something she herself found out when she first cracked the script.

"I remember reading it before I went in to audition, and went, 'Oh, Jesus Christ': it's hard; it's a hard play," Cornish explains, eyes wide but voice characteristically, arguably Britishly, dry. "It's got a huge amount of scope. It's about more than the developments from the Prague Spring through to the Velvet Revolution, which is a huge topic in itself. You've got brain science, you've got Sapphic poetry, you've got a woman dying of cancer, the ideals of communism versus its reality, family dynamics—and there's the whole Syd Barrett, rock-and-roll thing too."

That scope is pretty ably demonstrated by Cornish's character: though the play is, at its heart, about Czechoslovakia's slow march to democracy as told through the eyes of Jan (Shaun Smyth), an English-educated student who's at first more interested in rock than politics—though, under Communism the two are rather intertwined.Cornish plays Lenka, a Czech student of Sapphic poetry who studies with Jan's mentor, Max (Kennth Welsh), an unrepentant Marxist living in England. If you're wondering what exactly Sapphic poetry has to do with the Velvet Revolution, the answer is not a lot—but, in Stoppard's world, a whole lot. As Cornish explains, it's all part of Czech-born, English-educated playwright's impressive ability to create a world full-cloth, not just the bits that serve his immediate purposes.

"I think what Stoppard gives us is real people who are talking about some very intense ideas," says Cornish, who says the well-drawn characters are a large help for an actor parsing the play's density. "They're not just cut-outs of some intellectual thought—this really means something to them."

It's that lack of cut-outs that really pushes Rock 'n' Roll into another territory as a play. It certainly has enough woven themes and heady ideas to keep scholars and critics busy for as long as they like—but it also has enough intrigue, humour and humanity to keep the audience well away from that if they don't want any part of it. It is called Rock 'n' Roll after all, and besides a carefully chosen soundtrack that includes everything from original Pink Floyd frontman Syd Barrett to the Rolling Stones, a good chunk of the story revolves around the actions of local-legend Czech rockers Plastic People of the Universe, to say nothing of the fact this is a story of a political revolution and the people who bring them about.

"One man came up to us in Toronto, and he said he didn't know much about the history and basically thought it was a thriller," explains Cornish of the play's multiple appeal. You do have to focus: there isn't really a moment where you can just sit back in your chair and let your hair down. But at the same time, it has great and delightful and exciting characters, and it's an incredible story." V

Thu, Nov 12 – Sun, Nov 29
Rock 'n' Roll
Directed by Donna Feore
Written by Tom Stoppard
Starring Shaun Smyth, Kenneth Walsh, Fiona Reid, Alex Paxton Beesley,
Belinda Cornish
Citadel Theatre (9828 - 101A Ave)
$50 – $75

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