Punk Rock – atyp Under the Wharf and pantsguys

Overview

Anton Chekhov famously said that if a gun appears onstage in the first act, it has to go off in the second. The same could be expected of teenagers.

We might not have thought things through as a society when we decided that humans still soft, still semi-formed, with hormones that fly like ping pong balls socked by the racquets of sex and existentialism should be forced to sit one exam that will determine so much of their futures. The stress is fierce. It's inevitable that some will snap from the force.

Punk Rock, by English playwright Simon Stephens, leads us to question who it will be among its class of sixth formers (year 12s to us) about to take their A-level mock exams (that'd be HSC trials). Will it be the larrikin whose play can tilt into true bullying? The victimised nerd who feels the world coming to its doom? The quirky girl whose mum will "kill" her if she gets a 'B'?

The play is misrepresented by both its title and its sometimes tagline, "The History Boys on crack". These teens are not rebellious or angry; they're anxious. Lilly (Darcie Irwin Simpson), William (Sam O'Sullivan), Bennett (Graeme McRae), Cissy (Madeleine Jones), Nicholas (Owen Little), Chadwick (Gabriel Fancourt) and Tanya (Rebecca Martin) are a particularly British public school (er, private school) breed of high achievers who gather in a secluded part of the library to study and socialise. They're searching for a real way to live in the 21st century, though not as real as it's about to get.

The brilliance of Punk Rock lies in its vibrant, funny, confessional conversations that ring true without calling on a single 'like' or 'OMG' so often used to mark teens in contemporary texts. You're so subtly drawn in that you barely notice the undercurrents of power constantly at play, and when real menace surfaces, it's chilling. The masterful script has been staged with care and controlled energy by director Anthony Skuse (Lord of the Flies) and the pantsguys team.

The sum is an unpatronising acknowledgement of the complexities of teenagerhood and a powerful reminder of why our schooldays are rarely the best of our lives.

Due to popular demand, Punk Rock's season has been extended to August 18.