Quadrophenia is set in London and Brighton when the Mod and Rocker feud at it's crowning point. The whole story is told through the four split personalities of Jimmy - The Lunatic, The Hypocrite, The Tough Guy and The Romantic. Young Jimmy, a dedicated Mod is looking for a place where he belongs and a girl to follow him every step of the way. Trapped in a menial job and a dysfunctional family, he travels to Brighton in the hope of a life changing result. The version we saw had been expanded by the Director Tom Critchley and Writer Jeff Young. Playing the four Jimmy's were Jack Roth, Rob Kendrick, Ryan O'Donnell and George Maguire.
The whole show was very entertaining resulting in dancing and singing along, the show reflected the energy given off by the actors to the audience creating a fast paced, unpredictable performance. The nature of the show being this way caused the story to be extremely difficult to follow. If you're not familiar with the story line it is a very hard job to get your head around this show. All the characters are complex and the events are intricately choreographed so that many different things happen at once on the stage.
The performers were 100% dedicated to the role and showed clearly which personality they were showing. Every actor was very energetic and active on stage to reflect the social context of the rock opera. However, the weakest personality was the actor playing Jimmy's hypocritical side because it was hard to portray that through acting thus the audience found it hard to distinguish what this personality was. Most of the older audience reminisced about their days in the Mods and Rockers era, they loved being able to go back to their childhood for a night.
The set was very well made, however it didn't have much range. It had one moving stage in the middle that was a large hollow circle that the performers could climb on, which was not at all relevant to the time period. There were also some small set pieces and props that added little to the stage. These smaller, basic pieces however were very relevant to the era.There was a powerful use of lighting, they had flashing lights in the party scenes which gave the mood of energy, craziness and chaos.They also had a single spotlight when something terrible happened such as when the Bell Boy (Ace) dies. Another time they used a single spotlight was when The Romantic Jimmy sung 'Love Rain O'er Me'. This was very effective as it showed Jimmy felt isolated.The costumes were perfect for the time period and true to the Mod and Rocker scenes. Usually the band are in a pit in front of the stage and non-viewable but in Quadrophenia you could see the band throughout the performance and they were all in costume. This made it feel like Jimmy's life was like a whole soundtrack, with a band following him. It was a very original idea and it meant the band could get more involved and they can feel as if they're part of the action.
As soon as the interval arrived there was a sudden buzz with people commenting on the excitement and energy being shown. The show concluded with a standing ovation and an encore of 'My generation'.
In conclusion, the whole show was exhilarating and refreshing. However, I strongly recommend that if you're planning on seeing the show you should read the story line otherwise you will find the performance hard to follow,
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