The Southwark Playhouse are presenting the UK premiere of Gregory S.Moss’s coming of age story told through punk. But what have critics been saying about it?
WhatsOnStage: ** Matt Trueman found that: “Replicating the speech patterns of ’80s teen movies, that ‘Bill and Ted‘ gormlessness, flattens a play that should swing wildly through surreal dreams and live brawls. Hughes not only slows it down to a drawl, he lets it slide into pastiche.”
The Stage: *** Natasha Tripney wrote: “Hughes’ intelligent production sings its own odd song.”
The Independent: *** Paul Taylor commented:”Tom Hughes’s well-acted production generates just the right spirit, pitched between a lively sense of the ridiculous and an unblunted empathy with the raging energies and underlying sadness of adolescence.”
The Financial Times: ** Ian Shuttleworth summed the production up by saying: “With nothing to care about, the play becomes simply a matter of entertainment and/or analysis.”
British Theatre.com: **** “Every scene shakes with the fervid, erratic energy of thwarted youth, perfectly captured in Tom Hughes’ confident and eclectic production.”
London City Nights: **** “Castle and Perry do a great job of capturing teenage awkwardness and rebellion.”
The Reviews Hub: *** 1/2 “Cecile Tremolieres design gives punkplay a suitably grungy but bright 80s feel with its tones of pink and blue, while Hughes’ direction, as you’d expect from someone who’s worked with Rufus Norris and Carrie Cracknell, creates a sharp and atmospheric tone that balances the heartfelt and eccentric moments well.”
Broadway World: *** ” threatens to say something important but never quite follows through.”
Theatre Bubble: *** “Punkplay is a rare breed of modern London theatre and for that cannot be faulted, but it is significantly flawed in other areas of execution.”
London Theatre 1: **** “90 minute explosion of 80s nostalgia.”
The Upcoming: **** “Punkplay is certainly good fun, with lots of laugh out loud moments, and will be a joy to anyone who dallied with punk in their youth.”
The Times: * “For a love letter to punk, it seems to despise the teenage dirtbags it promises to save and the stage is cluttered with kitsch and concept.”
Carn’s Theatre Passion: *** “Punk Play is more a collection of scenes and ideas than a fully realised narrative, but it does manage to capture that tearful, awkward moment when you saw the world in a very different way.”
Partially Obstructed View: “All told though this is a pleasant surprise, an entertaining evening, some characters it’s interesting to get to know, and a story that works both as coming-of-age tragicomedy, and a microcosm of how not just punk but any radical movement carries the seeds of its own ending.”
Punkplay will play at the Southwark Playhouse until the 1st October. For more information and to book tickets visit: http://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/show/punkplay/#details