Quadrophenia
Quadrophenia
Posted: 11 Oct 2009
Quadrophenia – Sunderland Empire Theatre
I’m not sure what the audience at the Sunderland Empire made of the new stage show of Quadrophenia.
Like the 1979 film, it’s based on The Who’s 1973 album and follows the story of Jimmy – the original mixed-up adolescent growing up at the height of the Mod era.
Performed purely as a succession of numbers from the album featuring a stonking band on a raised dais at the back of the stage (5.15 was the stand-out for me), the lack of narrative makes the action hard to follow if you’re not familiar with the original work or the film.
Certainly there was some puzzlement in my section of the audience as the action jumped from Jimmy’s domestic setting on the sofa at home with mum and dad to the beach at Brighton.
But, as someone who bought the album when it was first released, I thought the pacy show captured the world of teenage angst with its mood swings, intense passions and struggle between duty and rebellion.
And using four actors to play the disparate and conflicting aspects of Jimmy’s character was a nice touch and completely fitting for the stage.
AG
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