Tom Stoppard and André Previn’s Every Good Boy Deserves Favour

In Tom Stoppard and André Previn’s ingenious 1977 musical comedy, a political dissident shares a room in a mental hospital with a genuine madman who thinks that he has a symphony orchestra at his fingertips. Unless the dissident recants, he will never be released. The Sydney Symphony Orchestra becomes a player in this biting satire on life in a world of alternative facts.

This unusual blend of theatre and concert has rarely been mounted, and never in Australia. Stoppard is an acclaimed writer for stage and screen, winning an Oscar for Shakespeare in Love. His dazzling plays buzz with wit and wordplay. Pianist, conductor and composer André Previn has also had a stellar and award-winning career.

Tom Morris directs a brilliant cast of performers, led by Mitchell Butell. Reconciling wit and anger, EGBDF reminds us that one of the worst features of tyranny is its ability to reorder reality.

Composer Shostakovich knew this well and offers his own sly commentary in the dizzying circus of his Ninth Symphony.