Kevin O’Leary measures times by the albums of the Rolling Stones: “Let It Bleed,” ’69. “Some Girls,” ’78. “Steel Wheels,” ’89.

“They’re chapters in my life,” the Portland playwright said. Over time, the band and its music have helped move him forward and given him faith and hope. “As long as they’re on the planet, everything’s going to be OK,” he said.

The music of the Stones provides the backdrop for O’Leary’s new play, “Rock ‘n Roll,” a story about the hope and faith of the Woodstock generation and the despair and doubt that follows some of them into middle age. The two-act play opens Sept. 26 in the studio theater at Portland Stage with a local cast of Sean Ramey, Marie Stewart Harmon, Chris Davis, Peter Brown, Raheem Brooks and Robbie Harrison.

It’s a play about music, friendship, trust and what happens to those things over time. Ultimately, the music survives, and the others fall to forgiveness.

It’s a new play, but O’Leary, 60, has been writing it most of his life. He grew up in Portland with three older brothers. It is not an autobiographical play, but it reflects the things that were going on in his house at the time, with concern over the draft and Vietnam and the excitement of rock and roll and its ability to unite and motivate young people.

The first act of the play is set on Dec. 18, 1969, the 26th birthday of Stones’ guitarist Keith Richards. Rake Donovan is hosting his girlfriend and their friends – their band of buddies – at a party in Keith’s honor, to listen to “Let it Bleed,” which had just come out, and celebrate the spirit of Woodstock.

But the hope of the ’60s is fading with the reality of a new decade of uncertainty and fear. Instead of exploring the new record and reveling in Woodstock, Rake and his buddies are agonizing over the disaster of Altamont, the music festival in California where a fan was stabbed to death right in front of the stage – in front of the Stones – and arguing about Vietnam. It feels like the eve of destruction.

Act II is 20 years later, on Dec. 18, 1989. Rake is still around, but slipping away. The band has broken up. The friends are scattered. The loyalties of the times didn’t survive, but its legacies did, for better and worse.

It’s a play about the need to forgive and the desire to be forgiven. And despite its time stamp, “Rock ‘n Roll” might feel like a play for these times today, said O’Leary, a longtime Portland playwright and actor.

“I wrote the play, I think, because I desired to tighten up the loose strands and threads of my beautiful, gifted life,” he said. “And, to quote the Boss, to shore up ‘the ties that bind.’ “

Copy the Story Link