Every Good Boy Deserves Favour Tickets

The National Theatre will be housing the revival of the dark comedy Every Good Boy Deserves Favour this January. The Tom Stoppard and Andre Previn play from 1977 asks some fundamental questions thrust upon people whilst under an evil regime – is it right to ignore the truth if lying can secure your own freedom from persecutors, willing to constrain you under false pretensions? Originally performed as part of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebrations in 1977, the play is a successful account of the horrors faced by people in Soviet Russia. Every Good Boy Deserves Favour runs from 16th January 2009, with previews from the 12th January.

In 1968, a small group of demonstrators assembled in Moscow’s Red Square to protest against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. Amongst these was Viktor Fainberg, who with the others was arrested and held in a cell for five years, accused of insanity. There he met composer Andre Previn and the meeting between the two is what inspires this play.

Previn joined with writer Tom Stoppard with the aim of making a play relating to the experiences. Every Good Boy Deserves Favour was born, both as an account of what happened, and as a tribute to Vladimir Bukovsky, the former Russian dissident whose account were very similar. Stoppard’s play features at its centre Alexander Ivanov – imprisoned in a mental institution. The only way to secure his freedom is to lie and admit to his mental condition and also lie in claiming that the hospital has cured him. He refuses on principal.

Alexander Ivanov shares his cell with another Ivanov. They share a name, but their characters are vastly different. The second Ivanov is genuinely mentally ill – he thinks that he has a full orchestra at his very command. In this production, an actual orchestra helps to create this effect, helping to show how the two characters differ vastly.

Sir Tom Stoppard has an impressive track history. He was born in Czechoslovakia in 1937 and is a leading writing of the stage and for film, winning many awards along the way. His stage plays include The Coast of Utopia and films include Brazil and Shakespeare in Love. Andrew Previn is an award-winning composer, conductor and pianist. His track history includes many film scores including Kiss Me, Kate in 1953. For 1977’s premiere of Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, he conducted the London Symphony Orchestra.

The National Theatre From 16th January 2009.