'Progressive rock is subversive' (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)

'Progressive rock is subversive'

2:32pm Thursday 12th May 2011 in Interviews By Melanie Dakin

Tanks rolling in to a city square – it’s a frighteningly familiar image. Nothing sums up the vulnerability of the individual in contrast to the might of the state more than a human figure standing ground in front of a line of armoured vehicles, such as the student protest in Tiananmen Square.

Most recently, uprisings in Bahrain, Syria and Egypt have been dubbed ‘The Arab Spring’ in reference to The Prague Spring in 1968, an all too brief period of optimism before Eastern Bloc armies from four Warsaw Pact countries sent troops and 2,000 tanks into Czechoslovakia.

Sir Tom Stoppard’s 2006 play Rock ’N’ Roll, which opens at The Abbey Theatre in St Albans this weekend, charts the period from the Prague Spring to the Velvet Revolution of 1989. Director Yvonne Harding recalls the turbulent events.

“I went to Prague recently and it was difficult to stand there in such a beautiful town and think of tanks rolling in. I was old enough to watch it on television in 1968 and it was really shocking. We are slightly used to seeing such images now but not back then.”

Yvonne is using archive sound and footage for her production.

“We have film from when the tanks invaded, which will be projected onto a screen at the back; and in the programme, we have quotes from our patron Philip Madoc about how it felt to be there and what he remembers from seeing it first-hand.”

The Czech-born, British playwright’s work often discusses issues of civil rights abuse and state repression.

Rock ‘N’ Roll focuses on the persecution of free-thinking people such as writers, playwrights and musicians and is told through the clash of two different generations and their ideals. Jan, a young Czech dissident, sees the music of Pink Floyd, Velvet Underground, and Prague’s own Plastic People Of The Universe as symbols of resistance but his ideology meets with fierce opposition from Max, an old hardline British Marxist don.

“Music is a continuous commentary throughout the play and during the scene changes I doubt the audience will be able to sit still. I’m reliving my era really but the power of the music is still there. Strictly speaking, progressive rock has always been subversive, not just in totalitarian countries.”

Yvonne grew up in St Albans and Markyake and attended St Albans Girls School. The show marks her tenth production with the Company of Ten. She has also worked with Regeneration Theatre Company and St Albans Operatic Society on shows such as La Boheme, La Traviata and Trial By Jury. Yvonne also taught drama and music in a special needs school in Luton, improvised drama and role play as part of Childline’s outreach programme and co-founded and directed St Albans Youth Music Theatre, which is now part of the Company Of Ten.

“We covered the spectrum of music theatre from operetta to rock musicals. The thing that used to strike me about youth music was when the parents came and said: ‘does he behave because he’s always in trouble at school?’, but I saw a different side to the children. Music and drama education gives them the right sort of confidence and to be reliable and part of a team.”

Yvonne’s current team of 11 actors are all doubling up on parts.

“Jo Emery who plays the wife in the first act plays her daughter in the second who has grown up to be the same age as her mother. It’s a very moving and humorous play as well as a very cerebral play. With an intelligent play, you tend to attract intelligent actors and they make the play come alive with the passion they have.”

Rock ‘N’ Roll is at The Abbey Theatre, Westminster Lodge, Holywell Hill, St Albans from Friday 13 to Saturday 21 May at 8pm. Tickets: 01727 857861, www.abbeytheatre.org.uk