CityLife

Punk Rock

Sophie Wu plays Cissy

Punk Rock
Royal Exchange Theatre
October 12, 2009

PUNK Rock may not be exactly what it says on the tin – in that it’s not a musical nor is it about 70s music. But it’s as wild and rebellious a comment on today’s society as you’ll find.

The play reunites Stockport-born playwright Simon Stephens with Royal Exchange artistic director, Sarah Frankcom. It’s a dynamic partnership, which four years ago brought us the multi-award winning On The Shore Of The Wide World, co-produced with the National Theatre.

This time they’ve combined their talents for a co-production with the Lyric Hammersmith which explodes on to the stage and doesn’t let up; taking the audience on a thrilling ride through a range of emotions, from laugh-out-loud funny to hand-over-eyes shocking.

Emotional depth

Set in a fictional fee-paying grammar school in Stockport, it follows a group of articulate, middle-class teenagers as they prepare for their mock A-level exams.

There is lots of jostling, posturing and cruelty as the sixth-formers each try to find their own place in the world. We watch the pain of unrequited love and lusts, the excitement and intrigue of first sexual encounters, tall stories, broken confidences, image crises and not forgetting the worry of exams which if failed, God forbid, might condemn them to life in Stockport.

Inevitably, it produces characters we all recognise – the adolescent malcontent, William (an impressive stage debut by Tom Sturridge); school bully Bennett, given a jocular arrogance by Henry Lloyd-Hughes and Chadwick, the class geek, sensitively portrayed by Harry McEntire.

Jessica Raine provides complex dimensions to new girl Lily, who appears confident but self harms; Nicholas Banks gives a charismatic performance as heart-throb Nicholas; Sophie Wu is fabulously precocious as super-cool Cissy, while Katie West also shines, giving real emotional depth to nice but quiet Tanya.

Tragic conclusion

Stephens’ sassy dialogue combined with Frankcom’s taut direction, and brilliant performances all round, mean that the characters never fall into mere stereotype.

We believe in them and their relationships with each other, which is why their stories keep us on the edge of our seats to the play’s tragic conclusion.

One minute these characters are oozing sexual confidence or philosophising, the next they’re asking: “Have you ever eaten four packets of Skittles in one day? Your brain feels amazing.”

At 17, Cissy believes her world will fall apart if she gets anything less than an A grade – if only that was the worst thing that could happen.

Until October 31, 2009