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Punk Rock | |
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Written by | Simon Staphens |
Characters | William Carlisle Lilly Cahill Bennett Francis Cissy Franks Nicholas Chatman Tanya Gleason Chadwick Meade Lucy Francis Dr Richard Harvey |
Date premiered | 2009 Royal Exchange Theatre |
Place premiered | England |
Original language | English |
Punk Rock is a play by the British playwright Simon Stephens which premiered at the Royal Exchange in 2009 [1] and transferred to the Lyric Hammersmith directed by Sarah Frankcom. The play concerns a group of private school sixth formers during their A Level mocks exams. [2]
In the library of a grammar school, eight sixth-formers are preparing for their mock-A Levels and nearing the end of their school lives. There are various sub-plots detailing the various love lines or triangles that emerge through the play.
Character | Original Cast, 2009 | Revival Cast, 2010 | Welsh Cast, 2012 | New Zealand Cast, 2012 | Australian Cast, 2012 | Australian Cast, 2014 | Spanish Cast, 2014 | New York Cast, 2014 | New Zealand Cast, 2015 | Edinburgh Cast, 2015 | Montreal Cast, 2016 | Spanish National Tour Cast, 2017 | New Zealand Cast, 2017 | French Cast, 2019 | Australian Cast, 2019 |
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William Carlisle | Tom Sturridge | Rupert Simonian | Samuel Harris | Nathan Mudge | Sam O'Sullivan | Andrew Creer | Víctor de la Fuente | Douglas Smith | Jared Kirkwood | Oliver Matjasz | Oliver Price | Jesús Lavi / Víctor de la Fuente | Shauwn Keil | Maël Galland | Ben Walter |
Bennett Francis | Henry Lloyd-Hughes | Edward Franklin | Christopher Harris | Jordan Mooney | Graeme McRae | Bevan Pfeiffer | Samy Khalil | Will Pullen | Taylor Barrett | Stefan Collins | Nicholas Lepage | Juan Frendsa | Mila Fati | Romain Tarnaud | Karl Richmond |
Chadwick Meade | Harry McEntire | Mike Nobel | John Clark | Ryan Dulieu | Gabriel Dean Fancourt | Dacre Montgomery-Harvey | Álvaro Quintana | Noah Robbins | Hamish Annan | Lewis Norton | Patrick Park | Fernando Sainz de la Maza | Kasey Benge | Charles Peccia Galletto | Laurence Boxhall |
Lilly Cahill | Jessica Raine | Laura Pyper | Leah Carroll | Sarah Graham | Darcie Irwin-Simpson | Jessica Paterson | María Romero | Colby Minifie | Ripeka Templeton | Jane Hogan | Rebecca Bauer | Cristina Gallego | Molly Weaver | Clara Courty Zanca | Zoe Hawkins |
Cissy Franks | Sophie Wu | Ruth Milne | Jeni Lloyd | Morgan Albrecht | Madeleine Jones | Stephanie Panozzo | Carolina Yuste | Lilly Englert | Ailis Oliver-Kerby | Debbie Ashley | Madeline Harvey | Cristina Bertol / Ana Escriu | Alexandra Taylor | Manon Nobili | Ruby Duncan |
Nicholas Chatman | Nicholas Banks | Nicholas Banks | Kemario Ellington | George Mason | Owen Little | Luke Fewster | Alejandro Chaparro | Pico Alexander | Andrew Coshan | Elliot Gardner | Ryan Doherty | Axel Novo / Jota Haya | Maia Diamond (Nichola Chatman) | Marc Derville | Flynn Smeaton |
Tanya Gleason | Katie West | Katie West | Rebecca Ormrod | Elizabeth McMenamin | Rebecca Martin | Harriet Gordon-Anderson | Helena Mocejón | Annie Funke | Lana Walters | Josie Webster | Victoria Hall | Katia Borlado | Ashleigh Low | Jehanne Pollosson | Annie Shapero |
Lucy Francis | Emma Warbuton | Juliet York | Emily Dyble | Rosie Hayden / Caitlin Roscherr / Jaimee McCann | Clementine Mills | Elle Harris | - | Sophie Shapiro | Sinead Fitzgerald | Claire Elkins | Annabella Papaioannou/Megan Roche | - | Aishani Pole | - | Natalia Saavedra-Ingram & Pippa Asome |
Dr Richard Harvey | Simon Wolfe | Simon Wolfe | Liz Tustin (Dr Rachel Harvey) | Devlin Bishop | Paul Hooper | David J Rose | Ariadna Gil, Chani Martín, Eugenio Villota | David Greenspan | Ross Johnston | Chris Green | Saro Saroyan | Tana Payno | Annie Ruth (Dr Judith Harvey) | - | Jessica Clarke |
The premiere received generally positive reviews with Variety saying "confirms Simon Stephens as one of the most important and exciting British playwrights working today". The play has also been nominated for the 2010 TMA Best New Play award. It was also well received by The Guardian, [18] the Crikey blog, [19] The Times [20] and others.
Some critics have criticised Stephens for unoriginality, however. For example, Leo Benedictus, writing for the guardian in 2009, said "The critics spot various possible influences such as The History Boys, Another Country, Lord of the Flies, Elephant, If…, Skins, and The Catcher in the Rye." [18]
Punk Rock inspired Identity Crisis, a drama and philosophy project, exploring the play's themes with young people in London and Manchester. [21]
Punk Rock is frequently used in Drama education in sixth form and sometimes at GCSE level in England, as well as a few other places around the world. There have been multiple student productions of the play, some of which the play's author, Simon Stephens, has attended.
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