ST. LOUIS ACTORS' STUDIO 2010-2011 SEASON:
ANGELS AND DEMONS

Nov. 11 - 21, 2010
Rock 'n' Roll, by Tom Stoppard
Directed by Artistic Director Milt Zoth

Rock 'n' Roll is an electrifying collision of the romantic and the revolutionary. It is 1968 and the world is ablaze with rebellion, accompanied by a sound track of the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. Clutching his prized collection of rock albums, Jan, a Cambridge graduate student, returns to his homeland of Czechoslovakia just as Soviet tanks roll into Prague. When security forces tighten their grip on artistic expression, Jan is inexorably drawn toward a dangerous act of dissent. Back in England, Jan's volcanic mentor, Max, faces a war of his own as his free-spirited daughter and his cancer-stricken wife attempt to break through his walls of academic and emotional obstinacy. Over the next twenty years of love, espionage, chance, and loss, the extraordinary lives of Jan and Max spin and intersect until an unexpected reunion forces them to see what is truly worth the fight.

"TRIUMPHANT. ROCK 'N' ROLL is arguably STOPPARD'S FINEST PLAY. He is a MAGICIAN, and this is a passionately acted, decades-spanning tale of love, revolution and music. Stoppard treats the characters of ROCK 'N' ROLL with a deep affection I've never encountered from him before…" The New York Times

"FOUR STARS! FUNNY and ENTHRALLING! ROCK 'N' ROLL offers you something to take out of the theater you didn't come in with. Stoppard has focused the same lens and the same dramatic process he used in THE COAST OF UTOPIA on his own time -- And it's now even more sharply focused!" New York Post

"ROCK 'N' ROLL touches the heart while stimulating the mind. An intellectually challenging, intensely theatrical piece of work that is destined to be talked about wherever playgoers gather. I wouldn't have missed it for the world." The Wall Street Journal