Punk Rock Play Research

Punk Rock is a play by the British playwright Simon Stephens which premiered at the Royal Exchange in 2009 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.


Plot

Edgy and acute, Punk Rock is a slow-building story of violence at school, told with compelling depth and tension. The play introduces us to seven high-achieving teenagers at a fee-paying grammar school. They are holed up in the Upper School library, tucked away from supervision, revising — or not, as the case may be — for their mock A-Levels.

William, a bright Oxbridge-hopeful, falls for the enigmatic new girl Lilly, but she’s falling for someone else. Watched by his girlfriend Cissy, Bennett bullies the unconfident Tanya and the awkward prodigy Chadwick.

It is a recognizable stew of rivalries, desires and confusions, each character’s uncertainties carefully drawn. But as exam pressure builds, anxiety flares up into aggression, revealing a raw undercurrent of panic and hostility.

Critics

Critics say the whole premise of Punk Rock is similar to:
The History Boys,
Another Country,
Lord of the Flies,
If… 
Skins
They say these other plays/films have the similar theme of Private school students falling from grace and causing drama resulting in the death/demise of some characters. 

Images of private schools and the original play

I like the naturalistic style of the set in the original work and I also like that the set also never changes throughout the play. I wish to use a similar style of set (wooden furniture) and have the set to not change throughout the play, we stay in the same room anyway so there isn't much point in moving the set around.

I really like the grandness of the rooms (pillars, wooden banisters, the space, high ceiling) This is why I want to perform our piece in the hall and use wooden furniture to get that feeling of grandness for our piece.