Packed Soho premiere for Stoppard’s Pink Floyd play

 
6 August 2013

It’s taken Sir Tom Stoppard 40 years to fulfil his long-held passion to devise a play around Pink Floyd’s album The Dark Side of the Moon.

So no wonder last night’s BBC premiere of his new Radio 2 play, Darkside, was packed out. So many dignitaries turned up at the Century club in Soho that audience members were told to check their tickets. Those without a Radio 2 stamp were asked to move to a downstairs room where they could hear a simultaneous recording.

The VIPs selected to remain with Floyd drummer Nick Mason in the club’s third-floor cocktail bar included Arts Council England chair Sir Peter Bazalgette and Blur guitarist Graham Coxon.

All donned headphones to listen to Stoppard’s immersive play while a suitably psychedelic light show was projected on the ceiling, man.

Afterwards, Helen Boaden, BBC director of radio, enthused: “It’s Melvyn Bragg crossed with Syd Barrett.”

Mason told the Londoner: “I love it but I’m tempted to text Tom and tell him it’s really great but there were a lot of actors talking over the music.”

The drama will be broadcast over the August bank holiday.

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