If you are waiting for the music connect? Tenuous true, but, here’s my excuse, the last play Tom Stoppard had produced on Broadway was “Rock And Roll” and, part of it, was a look back at early Pink Floyd.
And Tom Stoppard, debatably (but not by me -I think so) is our greatest living playwrite. And he will be back on stage with Billy Crudup. Crudup starred in one of the greatest productions of a play I have ever seen. “Arcadia” at the Lincoln. I went four times and woulda gone more if I coulda afforded it!!
Another reason I am happy to write about this is because Le Poisson Rouge’s PR person, Dustin, has been so consistently generous to rock nyc, I am always happy to spread the word for him.
The final reason is the best: it is an amazing story and sounds like a good night. Here is the story via the press release:
“Two weeks ago, the members of the Belarus Free Theater were either in jail or in hiding. Now, miraculously, they are performing their play “Being Harold Pinter” as part of the Under the Radar Festival in New York. Soon they will be back in Belarus, where they will continue to risk the wrath of President Aleksandr Lukashenko, the man known as “Europe’s last dictator.”
Belarus, is like a throw back to the 60s behind the Iron Curtain. Between Russia, Poland, the Ukraine, Lithuinia and Latvia, they are hiding in plain sight. It is obvious why Stoppard would give props to the cause.
Anyway, this is what the night promises:
” On the eve of their return to Minsk, the Belarus Free Theater joins internationally-acclaimed playwright Tom Stoppard, PEN American Center, and a stellar supporting cast for an evening celebrating artistic freedom and the courage of hundreds of writers, artists, journalists, and intellectuals targeted in Lukashenko’s latest crackdown. Billy Crudup, Don DeLillo, and other surprise guests come together for a farewell gathering featuring literature, music, and cocktail conversation about the power of art and the future of Belarus.
$25 per ticket
ALL PROCEEDS BENEFIT THE BELARUS FREE THEATER
Here is the link to buy tix:
Here is the bit I shoulda toldja earlier:
Wednesday, January 19th, 2011
Viva the Belarus Free Theater
w/ Billy Crudup, Tom Stoppard, Don DeLillo, E.L. Doctorow, The Belarus Free Theater,
and more
6:30pm doors | 7pm show
$25
All Ages
This is a general admission, standing event.
Will I go? The thing is, I spend my free time (which is non existent) going to concerts. But I worship Stoppard, he is the Patrick Stickles of theatre. Stoppard wrote three of my favorite plays. In order of preference:
1. Arcadia
2. The Invention of Love
3. The Real thing
Maybe. Maybe I can fit it in…