The purpose of this article is to study how the social change of Czechoslovakia, from the Prague Spring in 1968 to the Velvet Revolution in the 1980s, is reflected in Tom Stoppard’s Rock 'n' Roll. This play, set against the background of two cities, Cambridge in England and Prague in Czechoslovakia, is called “a kind of pseudo-autobiography” of Stoppard. It is based on his own supposition that he had gone back to the Czech Republic, where he was born, after World War II, rather than going to England.
The primary concern of the play is the relationship between art and politics. Stoppard ponders whether it is possible to have a free society without complete freedom of expression. The aesthetic that Stoppard focuses on in this play is rock 'n' roll, from the historical fact that the Czech democratic movement started with the authoritative Communist regime’s suppression of an underground rock group named 'the Plastic People of the Universe’ and the Czech dissidents’ resistant movement against that suppression. Stoppard makes Jan’s change the main plot of the play, and shows how Jan, a rock 'n' roll maniac who was indifferent to politics, is changing into a dissident under the Czech Communist regime.
The reason why the Plastic People kept playing rock 'n' roll, “a socially negative music,” in spite of the threat of the government originates from the basic idea of rock 'n' roll: ‘I wanna be me.’ In order to symbolize freedom and passion innate in rock 'n' roll, Stoppard evokes the image of Pan, the pagan god of music, as the muse of the music genre. He expresses rock 'n' roll as “the great god Pan” of modern times. He also opens each scene with the iconic rock music of, for example, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, and U2, presenting a proper atmosphere for the scene. Rock music is such a powerful presence in the play that it is virtually another character.
Stoppard originally developed a situation in which a British Communist, a classical Marxist, argues with a man living in the Czech Republic under the communist regime. He tries to create a tension between the theory and the actuality taking place in the play. It is a very dramatic moment, when Max's Marxism is confronted with the reality of his family life, just as we see Marxism in theory confronted with real-socialism in post-invasion Czechoslovakia.
Jan’s change of attitude represents the conscious change of the Czech intellectuals who led the Czech democratic movement. The Czech people’s ardent desire to protect the freedom and passion of the human soul, symbolized as rock 'n' roll, finally established one of the greatest political results, the Velvet Revolution. It shows “the potency of art in general and its ability to alter society.”