Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (play)

This article is about the play. For the album, see Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (album).

Every Good Boy Deserves Favour is a stage play by Tom Stoppard with music by André Previn. It was first performed in 1977. The play criticises the Soviet practice of treating political dissidence as a form of mental illness.[1] Its title derives from the popular mnemonic used by music students to remember the notes on the lines of the treble clef. The cast comprises six actors, but also a full orchestra, which not only provides music throughout the play but also forms an essential part of the action. A chamber-orchestra version also exists.

The play is dedicated to Viktor Fainberg and Vladimir Bukovsky, two Soviet dissidents expelled to the West.[2]: 359 

  1. ^ Billington, Michael (19 January 2009). "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
  2. ^ Caute, David (2005). The dancer defects: the struggle for cultural supremacy during the Cold War. Oxford University Press. p. 359. ISBN 0-19-927883-0.