some questions about "Rock N Roll"

[sanda]

Posted: 11/13/07 at 3:47pm

Hope this post won't be flushed into toilet by the stike post.

*****************Spoiler perhaps********************

I have some questions about "Rock N Roll" and hope someone on this board can answer me.

Who is Alice's father? I am sure not Jan. But who?

Was anyone here caught in surprise that Jan suddenly fell in love with Esme in act 2? I mean at beginning Esme was only a teenager when Jan left England. There was not much commnunication between them for decades. How can they suddenly have such a strong passion for each other at the end?

Can someone send two pieces of quote to me if you have the script in hand? One piece is in act 1 when Jan talked about Jirous to Ferdinand. Something about "You see, the police are frightened by Jirous because his indifference. Your Havel care so much. Jirous, he doesn't care." The other is in act 2, when Esme talked about the Piper, "I thought he was not real until one day I saw him on stage. He cut his finger but keep playing. The blood was on his guitar. I jumped on the stage. He looked at me and said, "hello, I think I know you". Then I realize, he's the piper."

Thanks a lot.

[Calvin]

Posted: 11/13/07 at 3:52pm

Alice's father was the journalist guy. I can't remember his name. The one who was with the ditzy columnist at the party.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 11/13/07 at 4:17pm

Nigel is Alice's father.

There is definitely something between Esme and Jan. Max mentions that Esme offered to give Jan her virginity the night he leaves for Prague, but he doesn't go through with it. Over the years, she continues to correspond with him and send record albums, so the fact that they end up together is not exactly unmotivated.

[sanda]

Posted: 11/14/07 at 9:09am

Thank you very much.

Some more questions.
Does Esme have a job? And for people who have seen the show in UK, how different is the UK production from Broadway production?

I hope to talk more about this show cause I am sometimes confused yet fascinated by it. There are some beautiful language and ideas in this work.

[thenewmoon]

Posted: 11/14/07 at 12:36pm

I think it was never expected for Esme to have a job because she's supported by her father and his tenure (and, presumably, when she was married, by Nigel). I think growing up in her academic milieu, maybe her mother expected that she would become a feminist professor too, but maybe that went out the window after her death.
As to how someone could have a girlish crush that smolders for decades, well, it happens. Look at "The Royal Tenenbaums." That it gets fulfilled in the fulness of time in "Rock & Roll" is, I think, Stoppard's way of reconciling the ending of "Arcadia." (In that play, an adolescent girl has a crush on her older tutor, but fate keeps them from consumating the relationship).
There's an illuminating essay by Stoppard in the current issue of Vanity Fair that cleared up a lot for me.

[sanda]

Posted: 11/15/07 at 10:00am

I got the first piece of quote from a kind Broadwayworld member. Can someone send me the second? These two pieces are my favorite in the show. I was captured and mesmorized by the beauty of the language.

thenewmoon, is there a link to the Vanity Fair essay? I would like to read Stoppard's explanation.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 11/15/07 at 10:26am

Here is the Vanity Fair piece.
Vanity Fair - Here's Looking at You, Sid

[Smaxie]

Posted: 11/15/07 at 10:42am

Here's the second quote:

ESME
A man at the shops today… a bit rough-looking, with his head almost shaved but balding anyway… he saw Alice and said, "Hello, it’s you."

MAX
Why?

ESME
He thought she was me. He used to be in a band, he was quite famous, with wild black hair, you know, a great face, he looked, well, he looked like a rock star, but he blew his mind and the band sort of dropped him … and one night, just round that time, before I knew him, before I knew it was him, I saw him in the garden. Just up there. I had my 'O' level results in my underpants – the envelope - which I'd, you know, opened but I thought, "Well, all in good time" – and I’d gone out to the Dandelion to see who was playing, and when I came home late through the garden, he was on the wall tootling on a pipe, like Pan.

(pause)

I wasn't always sure it happened, like a lot of things. But later he had a solo album, and… well, I went to see him play once, at the Corn Exchange, in my red leather bomber jacket I gave Alice. He was in the support band. It turned out to be the last gig he ever played, and he was all over the place… The bass player and the drummer tried to stay with him, they'd find him and he'd lose them again, so they left him to it but he wouldn't give up, he botched his way on and on, fudging chords and scowling with his hair falling over the strings. He'd cut his finger and he was bleeding on the guitar. It was terrible but somehow great. I got up on the stage and danced. He looked at me, sort of surprised. He said, "Oh, hello. It's you." He was the Piper.

Updated On: 11/15/07 at 10:42 AM

[sanda]

Posted: 11/15/07 at 1:29pm

smaxie,thank you so much.

[sanda]

Posted: 11/16/07 at 10:05am

bump.

So how do you relate to the characters in the play? As a person who came from communism country myself, I feel deeply related to Jan. Yet Max and Esme and people from Cambridge left me cold.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 11/16/07 at 11:35am

I really sympathize with both of Sinead Cusack's characters ... Eleanor's brilliant breakdown scene in Act One, where she says, "I am not my body. My body is nothing without me." I can't think of a scene like it in the rest of Stoppard. Cusack's Act Two character is lost and wandering, an aging flower child out of place in Thathcher-era England. She has several beautiful speeches, but there is one line in Act Two that I thought was heart stopping... "Will you be here when I get back?"

[jordangirl]

Posted: 11/30/07 at 7:48am

Does anyone know if they've got student rush (or general rush) for this? It's about the only thing I'm interested in seeing right now...

[sanda]

Posted: 11/30/07 at 9:19am

I saw the show with student rush. I got the last two row far right side at mezzenie. The view from there is ok. Maybe they will change because I saw it in the last preview and the house was full.
Updated On: 11/30/07 at 09:19 AM

[jaystarr]

Posted: 11/30/07 at 9:22am

I will see this tommorow.. Its good that frogsfans is gonna be there too. we can probably discuss it during intermission and after the show.. I hope I understand some parts and I dont phase out... LOL ! If only there's tons of Dunkin Donuts coffee in the area.. need more coffee before the show.

Steve- I think I will go tomorrow- see ya there ! Unless I dont wake up at 630 am.

J*


Updated On: 11/30/07 at 09:22 AM

[jordangirl]

Posted: 11/30/07 at 10:23am

Sanda ~ Did you get it day of or in advance? I found it on talkingbroadway, but it wasn't clear.

[sanda]

Posted: 11/30/07 at 11:38am

I got it one hour before the show because I do not live in the city and I could only buy ticket the day when I came to the city.

[jordangirl]

Posted: 11/30/07 at 11:49am

Ok, thanks. I do live in the city, but I teach during the week. Good to know you can probably get it evening of.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 12/2/07 at 12:59pm

I saw Rock 'N Roll yesterday. I'm not going to make any comments pro or con about the play becauee that sort of thing seems to lead to endless pontificating. However, what truly mystified me was the rapturous reviews re: the acting. I just don't see what all the noise is about Rufus Sewell. He wasn't bad, but, IMO, nothing to write home about either. I've read the play several times and cannot understand for the life of me why sometimes an accent was used and sometimes it wasn't. Brian Cox seemed to be shouting all the time in a one-dimensional performance and Cusack didn't seem to be doing anything more than mouthing the words. This is great acting?

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 12/2/07 at 1:41pm

Rush is available in advance. I went yesterday but had purchased my ticket about six weeks ago and it was Mezz Row H seat 2. I really enjoyed the show, although I think my degree in History helped me follow what was going on a bit better than the people around me, who kept asking questions during the show to eachother!!!

EDIT- I agree with you about Cox he was completely the same throughout the performance... but you could also say that his character and especially his character's opinions also change very little during the course of the play.
Updated On: 12/2/07 at 01:41 PM

[Smaxie]

Posted: 12/2/07 at 3:14pm

Regarding Rufus's accent - he speaks in Czech-accented English when his character is speaking English, and in his own natural speaking voice when his character is meant to be speaking Czech to another Czech. The Czech accent is light in the beginning scenes when he had been living in Cambridge, and is more pronounced in Act Two when his character had been living in Prague for 22 years and would be more rusty if he hadn't spoken English in a while. Dismiss it all you want, I think his facility with it is incredible.

[TomMonster]

Posted: 12/2/07 at 3:29pm

I agree Smaxie, his use of accent was quite profound, I thought!

[Roscoe]

Posted: 12/2/07 at 3:36pm

I recommend a good deal of very very strong coffee before you see ROCK N ROLL. You could save yourself the time and expense of sitting through the show and get the informative insert they add to the playbill. Way more interesting and dramatic than the "Play" itself.

[jordangirl]

Posted: 12/2/07 at 3:52pm

Hmmm... Given the record of Roscoe's feelings on a show compared to mine, I'm guessing I'll love it. LOL.

Plan on rushing this one SOON!!! :)

[Roscoe]

Posted: 12/2/07 at 4:17pm

Jordan, enjoy. I know I'm very much in the minority on this show. I am serious about the coffee, though. It was three hours and ten minutes long the night I went.

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 12/2/07 at 4:24pm

It was around 2:40-2:45 yesterday afternoon.