Tom WHO? you may be asking....
Did you see the film "Shakespeare in Love"? He wrote the screenplay. The riveting play "Invention of Love"? His. The historically groundbreaking 1966 "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead"? Also his. I could go on...
Suffice to say that Mr. Tom Stoppard is one of, if not the, most famous contemporary playwright alive today (with the exception of my friend Roberto). At 71, he is still producing big critically-acclaimed shows.
I went to see the most recent show of his "Rock and Roll" on Friday night with my friend Philippe. This show has been on Broadway just this past year (after its premiere in London). It was the opening show for the new season at the Theatre National de Nice, where I have been a subscriber for 7 years now. Now, like any former theater major and avid theater-goer, I've seen a lot of Stoppard - but this was my first Stoppard in French! A big epic show, spanning 3 decades and focusing on the "Spring of Prague", or what was the crushing of an attempted revolution against communist oppression in Czechosolovaki in 1968.
The absurdism of "R & G are Dead" is the touchstone for much theatrical analysis - the two low-level characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet develop into their own right and inadvertently tell the tragic prince's tale from a different view. But this Rock and Roll play, written 40 years later by the same man, was historically interesting and still Stoppard. It is set against the backdrop of the development of rock and roll music, specifically Syd Barret from Pink Floyd, the Stones, and the Czech group Plastic People of the Universe who were instrumental in the overthrow movement and were imprisoned many times.
At the curtain call, the lead actress disappeared in the wings and hauled out Daniel Benoin, the artistic director of the theater and the show's director. He took a bow and then held up his hand for the applause to stop, which it did. He pointed to house left in the orchestra, just below my view, and announced "I would like to say that Mr. Tom Stoppard is with us this evening... Tom, if you'll stand."
I clutched Philippe and practically fell over the balcony railing. Could it be? Tom Stoppard in the living flesh, just below little old me? I could have spit on him (which, needless to say, I did not, nor did I want to - but he was that close).
Instant goose bumps, just to be in the same room with a playwright giant like that. What a mind, what a creative mind, all those stories and dialouges he has told! I was truly awestruck.
The curtain calls ended and Philippe and I slowly made out way out and down and thru the lobby and out of the theater. This theater is up on a huge raised plateau, facing the Modern Art Museum which I featured in my mother's day posting. There are fountains and sculptures encircling it. People mix and mingle outside. I looked to my left and there he was off to the side, Tom Stoppard with a female companion, having a smoke. Not a soul was approaching him. I said to Philippe "Stand back. I'm going over there." "What?! You're NOT!" gasped Philippe. I leaned into him and said, "Like Big Sam says in Gone With the Wind, 'Horse, make tracks'". Philippe rolled his eyes and said "Is there any situation where you DON'T find a quote to insert from that godforsaken film?" And with that, I marched right over and stuck out my hand, looked Tom Stoppard in the eye and said "May I?"
We shook hands and had a nice little chat for 7 or 8 minutes about the theater, the director, going to the theater in French, etc. The woman turns out was his agent. I said, "If you don't mind me asking, how is it that you are here this evening?" "They asked me to come" he said matter-of-factly. "Simple as that?" I said. "Simple as that", he replied.
And that is how I shook hands with a great creative mind. Of course I've replayed the conversation a million times, mostly what I should have ASKED him, what I would have liked to have asked him! But the moment was so unexpected, and I was in such shock, that in many ways the whole conversation is a blur - I was so nervous and also very conscious of wanting to seem composed and not-too-intrusive.
But wow! What a thrill!
