Aside from 1997, the year of Hanson’s “MMMBop,” there was probably no better time for music than the late ’60s. Then, you had The Beatles before Yoko, Sam Cooke before he died, and Jimi Hendrix before he died. It was an exciting, turbulent time that also forms the setting of Tom Stoppard’s Rock ’N’ Roll, which you can see a staged reading of as part of the SLO Little Theatre’s Ubu’s Other’s Shoe series on March 20.
The play begins in 1968 just as the Prague Spring is gaining momentum in Czechoslovakia. There, a young PhD student, Jan, grows frustrated by the oppression of the Soviet regime in his country and eventually leaves for England to attend Cambridge University. A study in contrasts, his British professor Max fervently embraces communism. Backed by a soundtrack that includes The Rolling Stones and early Pink Floyd, Rock ’N’ Roll spans nearly 20 years and examines the ideological, cultural, and political debates that shifted and evolved over the course of the Cold War.
You can see SLO Little Theatre’s stage reading of Tom Stoppard’s Rock ’N’ Roll on March 20 at 7 p.m. or on March 21 at 2 p.m. or 7 p.m. Tickets are $10. For more information, visit slolittletheatre.org.
This article appears in Mar 12-19, 2015.
