Review: Punk Rock at the Manchester Royal Exchange

Oct 14 2009 by Francesca Elliott, Chester Chronicle

PUNK ROCK/Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, until October 31

REVIEW/by FRANCESCA ELLIOTT

IT’S been a while since I went to Manchester’s Royal Exchange and a while since I’ve seen any new plays.

So it made a nice change to get out of Chester and see Punk Rock, a new play by Simon Stephens, directed by Sarah Frankcom.

Punk Rock follows the story of a group of disillusionedStockport grammar school students as they near the end of their angst ridden school life.

The strong cast are young and attractive and give some good performances.

The dialogue is witty and engaging, but is delivered in a way that takes a bit of getting used to as real conversational style makes way for sentences shot at each other like bullets.

I found this annoying at first, but eventually came to terms with it and found myself becoming thoroughly engaged with the plot.

The story is punctuated with some pretty uncomfortable scenes between posh bully boy Bennett, played perfectly by Henry Lloyd-Hughes, and Harry McEntire as the brilliant but awkward Chadwick Meade.

The believable characters keep us successfully guessing all the way through, with many scenes leaving viewers on the edge of their seats.

This was some strong new writing performed by a strong cast, and as a night out, is to be recommended.

Punk Rock is at The Royal Exchange until October 31.

Call the box office on 0161 833 9833 or email the box.office@royalexchange.co.uk