Simon Stephens explores what lies behind the destuctive tendencies we associate with teenagers.
Some have referred to Punk Rock as "The History Boys on acid", but it's more Lord of The Flies in blazers. Currently playing at Lyric Hammersmith, Punk Rock follows a group of 17-year-olds as they gather in a forgotten room of their school library where they attempt to revise, philosophise and talk about sex. With no adults in sight, they police themselves, and decide how to treat the weak among them. A cocky, cruel Breakfast Club forms, promising a dark ending and offering an occasional nugget of insight.
For the students of a privileged grammar school in Stockport, university looms and with it an escape from their uninspiring town and a focus on Cambridge. Simon Stephens' script is as harsh as it is hilarious. It rumbles with constant comedy and impending doom via a cast of tremendously talented actors playing intricately crafted characters.
A fantastic Edward Franklin plays the arrogant Bennett whose nonchalant attitude to the hurt he inflicts on his peers is unsettlingly universal and in some ways worse than his actions. At times he's both the friend and foe of misfit William, played by the impressive Rupert Simonian (A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky) whose mental health deteriorates at the hands of his so-called friends.
Between the discordant scene changes, set to the script-specified music of Big Black, Sonic Youth and White Stripes, we realise how rarely we move on from things we discuss as teenagers. Stephens also highlights how unfair adults are to forget that young people live in an adult world where they can't escape rejection, tragedy, and loneliness. Impressively, he does this without the presence of adults.
Though Punk Rock magnifies the dysfunction in the group, there remains the reality that young people behave differently in the absence of adults. Straight A student Cissy (Ruth Milne) might not appear as dysfunctional to the adults she comes into contact with, but in front of her peers she reveals self-destructive tendencies. In this respect Stephens draws a distinction between gender. His male characters set about hurting others whereas the girls seem to focus their dysfunction inwardly.
Stephens is also clever to avoid any plain conclusions. He offers no answers but presents the humans behind inhumane acts. To his credit, he never oversimplifies the situation by blaming teenage woes on poverty, alcohol or video games; rather he creates something that spans generations. In Punk Rock, not even the building cacophony of tragedy and pressure can explain away the final, inevitable act of violence. His triumph is showing his audience that no one is a monster. However we choose to label incomprehensibly cruel people, they remain people.
Punk Rock runs at Lyric Hammersmith until 18th September.
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