Tom Stoppard’s Broadway hit Rock N Roll—directed by theater giant Trevor Nunn and starring Brian Cox—is about a lot of things: the Soviet influence on Czechoslovakia, the legacy of the social revolutions of the 1960s and Sapphic poetry among them. One of the more interesting running storylines involves the meteoric rise and tragic collapse of Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett, who is something of an unseen character in the play. Though the themes sometimes seem disparate, Pink Floyd and Communism have more in common than one might think. To wit:

• Both began as dreamy utopias (Marxism as a gateway to universal social equality; Floyd as the spacey brainchild of a genius)

• Both collapsed on themselves early (Marxism was distorted by powerful men; Barrett was distorted by powerful drugs)

• Both were overseen during their peaks by fascists (Communism by Stalin; Floyd by noted control freak Roger Waters)

• Both involved walls (The Berlin Wall; The Wall)

• Both finally fell due to the will of the people (The USSR collapsed under pressure from the proletariat; Floyd collapsed under apathy for The Division Bell)

Check out David Fricke’s full review and analysis of Rock N Roll here.

[Photo: King/Retna]