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An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Henry Hitchings's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Sarah Frankcom.
Cast: Jessica Raine, Katie West, Harry McEntire, Sophie Wu, Henry Lloyd Hughes, Tom Sturridge, Nicholas Banks
Description: Simon Stephens's drama follows a group of young people in their final year at grammar school. Directed by Sarah Frankcom.
Trains: Tube: Hammersmith 
Phone: 0871221 1722
Website: www.lyric.co.uk
Email: enquiries@lyric.co.uk
Fizzing with discontent: Tom Sturridge as William with Jessica Raine as Lily, the peculiar newcomer
Punk Rock is not about punk rock. Teenage kicks would be nearer the mark.
Set among the sixth form at a private school in Stockport, Simon Stephens’s play turns out to be an exploration of the volatility of adolescent life, its noxious snobberies and exhausting arguments.
The central character, William, is intellectually curious and sensually undernourished. Frustrated by his boring environment, and goaded by the preeningly sadistic Bennett (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), he fizzes with articulate discontent. At first this makes him endearingly deranged — something Tom Sturridge skilfully brings to the role — but in time his mood becomes vengeful and destructive.
Violence, Stephens seems to be saying, gets everywhere. We may be used to associating it with sink estates and nightclubs, but it is also seeping into the deodorised lives of the modern middle class.
William and his affluent schoolmates are a tangle of aspiration and confusion. Chadwick (Harry McEntire) is a brilliant nerd, jammed like South Park’s Kenny inside an unfortunate anorak. Cissy (Sophie Wu) is the sardonic high-achiever who treats her academic excellence in a suspiciously offhand fashion. Lily (Jessica Raine) is the peculiar newcomer — an object of fascination to others, with a murky past and a taste for self-harm.
Their profane bickerings and brief caresses are interspersed with wildly distorted music. It’s not this, though, but the play’s miasma of dystopian aggro that lies behind its title.
In England’s Dreaming, his monumental examination of punk rock, Jon Savage shows that the movement’s gleeful negativity had a lot to do with not just political alienation but also art-school facetiousness and an itchily sexual craving for chaos. Here these impulses are powerfully in evidence.
Comparisons with Alan Bennett’s The History Boys are inevitable. Lord of the Flies also springs to mind. However, Stephens seems to have been more strongly influenced by film and television. Lindsay Anderson’s If … is an obvious touchstone, and so is the TV series Skins.
The performances are intelligent, with Sturridge and Lloyd-Hughes especially persuasive, and Sarah Frankcom’s direction is efficient. Yet Punk Rock feels derivative. Does it have something new to say about teenage dislocation? Stephens in his programme notes suggests that the play is a response to “a country that treats its children … appallingly”. This sounds sharply political.
But the abuse here is perpetrated by children — not by parents, bureaucrats or teachers — and there’s no sign of a remedy or even a full diagnosis.
Until 26 September. Information 0871 221 1729.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
This is one of the worst plays I have ever seen - my wife and I walked out. I was astonished to learn the playwright had been a teacher; he gave every impression of never having met a teenager in his life. Unimaginative direction and affected acting too. How it received such good reviews I've no idea - well done Mr Hitchings for a slightly fairer appraisal!
- Bloggs, London
We saw the show last night (for the second performance).
I thought the cast were really good. It is a disturbing play – totally gripping.
All the characters were really believable.
The action happens in a school and, being a teacher myself, at times I found the story a little TOO real for comfort. I felt that I had taught at least two of the characters in the play.
When Harry McEntire (Chadwick and who we knew from his time in “Spring Awakening”) asked afterwards what I thought about the play I was lost for words. It took me about 30 minutes to take it all in.
We have booked again – it is definitely worth seeing more than once.
- Paul Thurtle, Chertsey, UK
