bands in Prague and elsewhere in Czechoslovakia who were ‘not interested in bringing down Communism’, and they prospered according to their lights, in some cases because the ground rules entailed no compromises on their part, in other cases because the ground rules did. The Plastics were among a small number of musicians and artists who wouldn’t compromise at all, so the space for their music and for ‘life itself became harder and harder to find, until it was eradicated.
The Plastic People of the Universe did not bring down Communism, of course. After the trial, Husák strengthened his grip on the country until the end came thirteen years later. What could not be separated were disengagement and dissidence. In the play Jan tells a British journalist, ‘Actually, the Plastics is not about dissidents’. The reporter replies, ‘It’s about dissidents. Trust me.’ And he’s right. The Rock ‘n’ Roll underground, as Jirous said, was an attack on the official culture of Communist Czechoslovakia, and in case he didn’t get the point, the regime sent him to gaol four times during those twenty years: culture is politics.
Jirous is one of the most interesting and least known personalities in the story of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic between the Prague Spring and the Velvet Revolution. He is not a musician; he was trained as an art historian. He joined up with the Plastic People in April 1969 in the brief period before they lost their licence, and he took over as their impresario and artistic director on the long bumpy road from professional status to amateur to outcast. It was his own integrity which he made the distinguishing attribute of the band, and he managed to see their travails as an enviable fate compared with the ‘underground’ in the West,
where … some of those who gained recognition and fame came into contact with official culture … which enthusiastically accepted them and swallowed them up, as it accepts and swallows up new cars, new fashions or anything else. In Bohemia the situation is essentially different, and far better than in the West, because we live in an atmosphere of complete agreement: the first [official] culture doesn’t want us, and we don’t want anything to do with the first culture. This eliminates the temptation that for everyone, even the strongest artist, is the seed of destruction: the desire for recognition, success, winning prizes and titles, and last but not least, the material security which follows.
This comes from Jirous’s ‘Report on the Third Czech Musical Revival’, written in February 1975, a year before he met Havel. It has an epigraph which might have been written by Havel: ‘There is only one way for the people—to free themselves by their own efforts. Nothing must be used that would do it for them … Cast away fear! Don’t be afraid of commotion.’ In fact, it was written by Mao Tse-tung; a long stretch. In Rock ‘n’ Roll, Max the Marxist philosopher says that he is ‘down to one belief, that between theory and practice there’s a decent fit—not perfect but decent’. The equivalence of theory and practice is nowhere harder to achieve than in ‘living in truth’ in a society which lies to itself. In the Czechoslovakia of 1968 to 1990 a Rock ‘n’ Roll band came as close as anyone.
AUTHOR’S NOTES
THE SETTING
‘Cambridge’ always refers to part of the interior and part of the garden of a family house in (probably) a leafy suburb of the city: not a modern house. It may be desirable to vary the proportion between the visible interior and the visible garden.
‘Prague’ mostly refers to the living room of Jan’s very modest apartment, but there are important exceptions, including some exteriors. Regarding the apartment, Jan’s record collection and the record player are obviously important, and a table with two chairs is probably the minimum necessary furniture. A ‘bathroom/lavatory entrance’, a ‘bedroom entrance’ and an entry door are all implied, possibly in view.
RECORDED MUSIC
… is subject to permissions. It is not the intention that the songs between the scenes be played complete, but as fragments (thirty to sixty seconds) breaking off arbitrarily when the next scene is ready to go. (‘Vera’ in Act Two is an exception.) In the first production of Rock ‘n’ Roll ‘sleeve notes’ for each recording were projected during the scene changes. This is strongly recommended: they kept the show going during the blackouts.
‘GOLDEN HAIR’
‘Golden Hair’ as recorded by Syd Barrett is based on a poem by James Joyce from Chamber Music (in Poems and Shorter Writings, Faber and Faber). Barrett’s lyrics, however, do not conform to Joyce’s poem (where ‘Goldenhair’ is one word and where the phrase ‘in the midnight air’ does not occur). I am grateful to the James Joyce Estate for its tolerance in this matter.
SCENE CHANGES
I use the phrase ‘smash cut’ to mean that all the cues for sound and light are called as one cue, so that one state (e.g., music in blackout) jumps into a completed state (e.g., silence and daylight) without fades or builds. Before each scene, if the year changes, the appropriate date is projected.
CZECH DIALOGUE
Since this is a reading copy of Rock ‘n’ Roll for English-speakers, I have not included dialogue in Czech. Where Czech is spoken, the burden of the dialogue is made clear to the reader. I do not know Czech myself, so I have no qualms about actors and directors making their own arrangements to supply the utterance, which in any case is half-buried by hubbub (as at the beginning of the lunch party).
DIALOGUE
… in brackets is overlapped or swallowed.
ACCENTS
Czech characters speaking ‘Czech’ to each other do so without accents. Czech characters speaking English speak with a ‘Czech accent’.
MEN’S HAIR
… is a problem. In Act One, Jan and Ferdinand should start off with moderately long hair which gets, in Jan’s case, very long until they get prison haircuts; after which Ferdinand would let his hair grow again. In Act Two, Jan should have an eighties haircut, though Ferdinand could stay shaggy. Nigel should have seventies long hair in Act One and an eighties haircut in Act Two.
Rock ‘n’ Roll was first presented at the Royal Court Theatre, London, on 3 June 2006, and transferred to the Duke of York’s Theatre on 22 July 2006, presented by Sonia Friedman Productions, Tulbart Productions, Michael Linnit for National Angels and Boyett Ostar Productions. The cast in order of appearance was as follows:
THE PIPER/POLICEMAN 1/STEPHEN Edward Hogg
ESME (younger)/ALICE Alice Eve
JAN Rufus Sewell
MAX Brian Cox
ELEANOR/ESME (older) Sinead Cusack
GILLIAN/MAGDA/DEIRDRE Miranda Colchester
INTERROGATOR/NIGEL
