a play for actors and orchestra
by Tom Stoppard and André Previn
Following this unique production’s success in 2009, don’t miss Southbank Sinfonia resuming its central role in Tom Stoppard and André Previn’s ‘Every Good Boy Deserves Favour’ at the National Theatre in 2010.
Tom Stoppard’s provocative and chilling play with music by André Previn, staged with an orchestra in an electrifying new production.
I assure you there is not much in it. Taken as a whole, the sane are out there and the sick are in here. For example, YOU are here because you have delusions, that sane people are put in mental hospitals.
A dissident is locked up in an asylum. If he accepts that he was ill, has been treated and is now cured, he will be released. He refuses.
Your opinions are your symptoms.
Your disease is dissent.Sharing his cell is a real lunatic, Ivanov, who believes himself to be surrounded by an orchestra. As the dissident’s son begs his father to free himself with a lie, Tom Stoppard’s darkly funny play asks if denying the truth is a price worth paying for liberty.
A co-production with Southbank Sinfonia – Britain’s young professional orchestra.
Watch videos on the 2009 production in Discover
Read an interview with André Previn and Tom Stoppard in The Times
Read about the play on Wikipedia
Image (top): Photo © Corbis
