Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (play)
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour is a stage play by
The play is dedicated to Viktor Fainberg and Vladimir Bukovsky, two Soviet dissidents expelled to the West.[2]: 359
Plot
The play concerns a dissident, Alexander Ivanov, who is imprisoned in a
In the hospital he shares a cell with a genuinely disturbed
Meanwhile, his son, Sacha, is seen in a school classroom with a teacher who attempts to convince him of the genuineness of his father's illness.
Production history
Because of the difficulties in staging a play that requires a full orchestra in addition to the cast of actors, the play is rarely performed.
Its 1977 premiere was staged at the
In 1978, the play was produced for television by the
Following its BBC production, the play ran at the Mermaid Theatre in London during the summer and autumn of 1978. Cast changes included John Carlisle taking on the role of the Colonel from John Woodvine, who played Alexander Ivanov, Ian McDiarmid (Ivanov), Rowena Cooper (Teacher) and [Rhys McConochie (Doctor). The role of Sacha was played by a number of young actors including Harris again, and Anthony Robb. Every Good Boy Deserves Favour was the last production at the old Mermaid before it was demolished and redeveloped.
In July and August 1979, the play was given a New York City run of eight performances at the Metropolitan Opera House, with a cast featuring René Auberjonois (Ivanov), Eli Wallach (Alexander), Carol Teitel (Teacher), Remak Ramsay (Doctor), Bobby Scott (Sacha), and Carl Low (Colonel Rozinsky).[3]
In March 1980, E.G.B.D.F was performed with a full orchestra at Australia's Adelaide Festival, directed by the barrister and theatrical impresario Ken Horler, starring the film actor and writer Graeme Blundell (Ivanov), and the child actor and later writer and political activist Gordon Weiss.
Patrick Stewart directed and appeared in a 1992 production (produced by Charles Johanson for the Orange County Symphony) which toured to four US cities. The cast included his Star Trek: The Next Generation colleagues Gates McFadden, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner and Colm Meaney.[4]
The play was presented at Town Hall, Seattle and Kirkland Performing Arts Center, WA, in September, 2000, by Boomer Classics and their director Shelley Henze Schermer. The production team included Arne Zaslove (stage director) and Adam Stern (conductor).
The play was performed in 2002 in Philadelphia as a collaboration between the Wilma Theater and the Philadelphia Orchestra, taking advantage of the fact that Previn had reorchestrated the score for chamber orchestra, making smaller productions possible.[5]
In 2008, it was performed at The Town Hall in New York City by the Boston University College of Fine Arts, directed by Jim Petosa and conducted by Neal Hampton, as part of their Incite Festival.[6] This production was revived (director, Jim Petosa, conducted by William Lumpkin) and played the Boston University Theatre in October 2009 and then again for two performances at Maryland's Olney Theatre Center in metropolitan Washington, D.C.
In July 2008, the Chautauqua Theater Company at the
In January 2009, London's
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour received its first Carnegie Hall performance by the Toledo Symphony Orchestra on 7 May 2011 as part of the "Spring for Music" Festival.[9] Cornel Gabara was stage-director for this performance, whose cast consisted of Pete Cross (Alexander), David DeChristopher (Ivanov), Yazan "Zack" Safadi (Sasha), Kevin Hayes (Colonel), Benjamin Pryor (Doctor), and Pamela Tomassetti (Teacher).
In April and May 2019, it was performed for 18 days in Tokyo and Osaka under the title of 良い子はみんなご褒美がもらえる.[10]
References
- ^ Billington, Michael (19 January 2009). "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
- ISBN 0-19-927883-0.
- ^ Mel Gussow (31 July 1979). "Theater: Stoppard's Every Good Boy". New York Times. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
- ^ Timothy Mangan (17 February 1992). "Music/Stage Review: A Starry Staging of 'Every Good Boy'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
- ^ David Anthony Fox (27 November 2002). "Good Boy Network". Philadelphia City Paper. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
- ^ Edward A Brown (7 March 2008). "BU Actors Take the Stage in New York". BU Today. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
- ^ Jane Vranish (2 August 2008). "Stage review: Chautauqua takes some chill out of Stoppard Cold War piece". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
- ^ Michael Billington (19 January 2009). "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
- ^ James R Oestreich (8 May 2011). "Something Borrowed and Something New". New York Times. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
- ^ "良い子はみんなご褒美がもらえる|PARCO STAGE". Retrieved 10 May 2019.
External links
- "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour". The National Theatre. Archived from the original on 20 March 2012. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
- Spencer, Charles (14 January 2010). "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour at the National Theatre, review". The Telegraph. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
- "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour by Tom Stoppard". The Complete Review. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
- Stoppard, Tom (2011). Every Good Boy Deserves Favor and Professional Foul. Grove/Atlantic, Inc. ISBN 978-0802195272.