20:00, Thu 13th – Fri 14th February 2020 at Fitzpatrick Hall
13:00, Sat 15th February 2020 at Fitzpatrick Hall
Lent Week 4

"Let me give you some advice. Number one - never mix music with politics..."

Alexander Ivanov is imprisoned in a Soviet mental hospital for statements against the government. He shares a cell with another Ivanov, who believes himself to be a conductor with a symphony orchestra under his command. Alexander's son Sacha is in a classroom with a teacher convinced of the genuineness of his father's illness, whilst inside the hospital, a doctor attempts to cure his patients by setting them lines. Ivanov's imaginary orchestra, on stage with the actors, surrounds them all, filling the spaces between their truths with music...

In this rarely performed one-act play with live music, playwright Tom Stoppard and composer André Previn interweave six actors and a chamber orchestra to create a strange and compelling world of authority, artistry and madness.