Stage review: Chautauqua takes some chill out of Stoppard Cold War piece

[spicedogs]

Streiber/ABC Michael Emerson, who stars on "Lost," played the role inspired by Vladimir Bukovsky in the Chautauqua Institution's production of "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour."

Saturday, August 02, 2008
By Jane Vranish
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Remnants of the Cold War surfaced at Chautauqua Institution's Amphitheater July 24 in a production of "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour," by Tom Stoppard with music by Andre Previn.
Of course, some Pittsburghers would have an interest in this musical-theater event simply because Previn, conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra from 1976-84, commissioned Stoppard to write it for the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977. The PSO premiered the work at the Kennedy Center.

It's considered by some to be a dated telling of Soviet oppression, but the Chautauqua production received a boost when Vladimir Bukovsky, the inspiration for the play when he was jailed as a political prisoner/mental patient, hit the headlines once more in 2007. Bukovsky was asked by a group of Russian activists to run in the next year's Russian presidential election, but the political dissident and author was turned down in January because he still possessed a British passport and had not lived in a Russian territory for 10 years.

The venerable Institution already had its own methods of updating Stoppard's play.

Much of the excitement at Chautauqua was not about the theater work itself, but about the fact that Michael Emerson, best known as Ben Linus on the hit series "Lost," would play the Bukovsky role.

As part of Stoppard's sweeping dramatic license, he was one of two prisoners named Alexander Ivanov, sharing the same cell. He went by "Alexander," while the other, Brian Murray -- who played the triangle and heard a symphony orchestra in his head (confidently represented by conductor Stefan Sanderling and the Chautauqua Orchestra) -- assumed the name "Ivanov."

To make matters more confusing, Alexander's son, also Alexander Ivanov but here called "Sacha," was part of the picture. But then, that's Stoppard's modus operandi -- to teasingly introduce numerous clever tidbits designed to challenge the audience.

Previn followed suit with references to Shostakovich and Prokofiev, musical dissidents themselves, making the two Russian composers part of the style and fabric of the score. But even Previn went over the top during a reference to Tolstoy's "War and Peace" with a rousing quote from Tchaikovsky's "Overture 1812."

It was entertaining to dabble in the various threads -- farce, irony, comedy, drama, plenty of fine wordplay and deliberate bad jokes -- the list went on and on. With everyone trying so hard to be so clever, each moment seemed scintillating at first, something like the fizz sound in a glass of champagne. Only it all dissipated in the end, adding up to plenty of verbal and musical frivolity but no lasting sense of satisfaction.

Jane Vranish can be reached at jvranish@post-gazette.com.
First published on August 2, 2008 at 12:00 am

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette

Ps.: If anybody knows where the hi-rise of this picture can be obtained, please let me know.

 

Comments

[greyrider.livejournal.com]

The article was interesting, and I wish I could have attended the play. Overall, the author didn't seem satisfied with the work, and I wonder why. I may need to read a copy of the play or see if a CD of the performance exists anywhere.

The photo is nice. Good luck optaining the hi-res version.

[mooncove.livejournal.com]

Ms. Vranish probably understood the play a lot better than I did, and I was there! ;)

Found the large version of the photo here:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/images/200808/michaelemerson_500.jpg