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(ear)
Anarchy in the North West
Class distinction: Ed Franklin as Bennett Francis and Katie West as Tanya Gleason Pictures: Helen Maybanks Punk Rock
Birmingham Rep **** WITH the Tory party
conference in town, arriving at Birmingham Rep was something of an
adventure in itself. Police marksmen prowled the rooftops and security
guards formed a bullish gauntlet. An intriguing marriage indeed -
Conservative party leaders in one building, a play entitled
Punk Rock in the
next. Johnny Rotten would have been proud. Simon Stephens' new play
premiered at the Lyric theatre, Hammersmith in 2009 and now tours as a
co – production with Manchester Royal Exchange theatre. Stephens has a
short but acclaimed back catalogue , including the Olivier award winning
Shore of the Wide World.
Punk Rock is set within the oak panelled walls of a private school in Stockport. Yes . . . Stockport. The Cheshire town is actually given something of a roasting by the students. Though it's ‘not as bad as Hull' remarks one of them. So there's two northern towns off the tour list! A simple but imposing set of a Harry Potteresque'
library provides a suitably grand backdrop to the classroom scenes in
front of it. Scenes are punctuated by snap-to-black lighting and
cranked up, discordant guitar riffs which ironically for a play called
Punk Rock veer more towards more modern guitar led bands like
The White Stripes and The Stooges than the bands more
associated with the Punk era. it's a clever choice though (as supporting
music should be , but often isn't )and its rather distorted , There are nods to Lyndsay Anderson's classic satire of
public school life, If and indeed, a tale of assorted students in
a posh school environment is nothing new. Think History Boys'
and even Harry Potter. The students here are an assortment of
characters and are no different to students from any background. There's
the bully. The nerd. The hunk. The nice one. The tart with a
heart. The quirky one. Stereotypes ,maybe, but no less real.
To outline the events as they unfold would be to give
too much away and it would be wrong to spoil the considerable tension
that Stephens creates as the action progresses. Suffice to say, the
shift in Act Two is considerable. Performances from the young cast are strong
throughout. Rupert Simonian is excellent as the off centre, almost child
like William. Laura Piper teases with ease as the new student Lilly and
Ruth Milne makes an impressive professional stage debut as Cissy. Edward
Franklin as Bennett is superb as the bully hiding behind his own sexual
issues and Nicholas Banks (pictured above) oozes natural charm
as Nicholas. Mike Noble gives a measured performance as the likeable but
pilloried boffin of the class, Chadwick and Katie West shines as
perhaps the most appealing character – Tanya. Juliet York and Simon
Wolfe complete the cast. As might be expected in a play about teenagers , the
language is at times ‘ fruity'. Most Anglo-Saxon favourites are in here
and it's mostly in context . At times, though, it seemed as though
profanity was used purely to get a laugh (which it did on this
particular night from a party of young males in particular ). A shame
when so many of the genuinely funny lines are so well written and do not
feature the f- word. Don't get me wrong – I'm no prude but there are
times, perhaps, when less is more. An exciting and thought provoking evening of new ,
dynamic theatre. I urge you to give it a go. Tom Roberts
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aggressive sound tied in perfectly with the sharp and sometimes brutal
dialogue. Everything is done at pace – cues are bang on and dialogue is
bounced around with real fizz , creating youthful energy and , when
called for, real tension.