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Punk Rock

Theatre Review by Matthew Murray

Punk Rock
Noah Robbins and Will Pullen
Photo by Joan Marcus

Timeliness is not the same thing as sensitivity. The MCC Theater production of Simon Stephens's play Punk Rock, which just opened at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, displays plenty of the former and not so much of the latter. True, the play may have premiered in the U.K. in 2009, but it speaks to concerns that dog American society still, and can't be wiped away with the passage of just a few years. But it's difficult to take Trip Cullman's mounting of it seriously given that it seems to have no clue what ideas it's trying to argue.

The war between script and presentation is one that's playing itself out on Broadway, too, in another of Stephens's works, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. But, as directed and designed, that show is more dazzling than this one. Granted, Punk Rock is set in the library of the Sixth Form of a Stockport grammar school, leaving Cullman, scenic designer Mark Wendland, and lighting designer Japhy Weideman few options but to go oppressively institutional.

In its cavernous, shadowy design, complete with yawning wide-open spaces, and half-empty shelves bearing piles of sloppily arranged books, the set ignites your view of the people who use it as otherworldly outsiders, people who don't belong among the other students with whom they must associate. Before a single line is uttered, you already know that you're dealing with people who are not "normal." If that wouldn't be a problem in some circumstances, it is when you're all but demanded to look for the monsters lurking just beneath everyday façades.

Punk Rock
Colby Minifie and Douglas Smith
Photo by Joan Marcus

Only one of the kids we meet is immediately identifiable as such, the handsome and aggressive Bennett Francis (Will Pullen). Though not exactly monarch of this particular kingdom, he nonetheless rules it through intimidation and outright force, if necessary. He'll take the girls he likes, dominate the boys he doesn't, and everyone else had better get out of the way. Even his of-record girlfriend, Cissy (Lilly Englert), is not spared his jokes, his wrath, or the embarrassment he'll inflict on a whim. Most of his vitriol, however, is saved for the tiny, nerdy, socially inept genius Chadwick Meade (Noah Robbins), who walks around quoting obscure astronomical and sociological facts and represents everything that Bennett hates he isn't, and Chadwick's friend and protector, the overweight Tanya Gleason (Annie Funke).

Yes, Punk Rock is, on a significant level, about bullying. But a side plot finds William Carlisle (Douglas Smith) pining over new girl Lilly Cahill (Colby Minifie), who has also caught the eye of star athlete Nicholas Chatman (Pico Alexander)—the closest to a friend Bennett can count. And having to compete with Nicholas for Lilly's affections is an obstacle William might not have the wherewithal to work around.

For most of the play, Stephens keeps the tensions simmering quietly, and develops each of the characters only enough for us to see how they fit into the hierarchy of the community they've created. We see bonds Lilly, William, and Nicholas form and fray in turn, but all of them growing through exposure, while the lingering threat of Bennett is mostly relegated to the fringes. So when the stories collide late in the show, and we see not only Bennett at full bore but the retribution that results from his actions, we should be stunned by what transpires.

Except we're not. Cullman and his actors have stripped certain key characters of many of their enigmatic qualities, leaving no question at all about who will snap, when, and why. This is not an exaggeration: From the first scene, which covers little more ground than William introducing Lilly to everyone, awkward physical tics and strained vocal inflections make it unavoidably obvious that someone has something drastically wrong with them—and it is indeed that person who commits the acts that are supposed to horrify us later.

If Stephens could drop fewer blatant hints along the way (among other things, the perpetrator has a history of being rather less than honest about upbringing and family), the script, as read, works fairly hard to maintain an aura of mystery. But because a couple of key performers telegraph the final events as openly as they do, Punk Rock becomes less about the societal and personal pressures that lead to bullying than a treatise on mental illness, and that's weight that the play, as written, simply isn't designed to bear.

With the exception of the actor whose character effects the violence that rocks the climactic scene, whose portrayal is utterly bereft of subtlety, the performances are generally well-tuned. And no one else has any trouble conveying the most dramatic and gut-wrenching aspects of the intertwining stories on which the evening is built. Everything is professionally enough handled that you won't have a bad time.

You also won't, sadly, have a moving or transformative one. The final scenes should be kicks to the gut, as we ponder the meaning of what we've witnessed and how unnecessary so much of it should be in a sensible world. But what ought to be a call to action instead shoves you away, leaving you feeling nothing for the "preventable" tragedy that, as it's rendered here, isn't actually preventable at all.


Punk Rock
Through December 7
Lucille Lortel Theater, 121 Christopher Street between Bleecker and Bedford Streets
Tickets online and current Performance Schedule: OvationTix


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