Haymarket Theatre,
Leicester
26th
February, 2019
“On a steady diet of soda pop and Ritalin,
no one ever died for my sins in hell”
Having seen the ways that people can come together in a
crisis in the uplifting Come From Away
last week, this week brought a more anarchic and nihilistic view of post-9/11
America from American Idiot, the rock
opera based on the Green Day concept album of the same name. Celebrating its 10th
Anniversary, the musical feels at once relevant while also capturing a very
specific period of history as experienced by a generation of disenfranchised
youths. Director Racky Plews takes a surreal and scattergun approach to Billie Joe
Armstrong and Michael Mayer’s creation which I found critically and personally confounding.
Against a backdrop of political turmoil, media propaganda and
suburban, Americana-tinted ennui, three friends find themselves in the midst of
a philosophical identity crisis. Getting drunk, getting high and watching tv
are the sole activities available to them in their small hometown. Escape
manifests in the form of a ‘Holiday’ to the big city, but duty, addiction and love
push the trio to the limits of sanity. Tunny is coerced by the televised image
of the stereotypical ‘Favorite Son’ and enlists in the army. Johnny (Tom
Milner) is torn between a burgeoning relationship and an addiction flamed by a
nefarious manifestation of his psyche, the erratic and uncompromising drug dealer,
St Jimmy (Luke Friend). Meanwhile, their friend Will (Samuel Pope) suffers from
extreme FOMO as his pregnant girlfriend becomes increasingly sick of his
immaturity.
Mix in some classic punk hits and you’ve got the recipe for a
riotous dissection of post-terror Western zeitgeist, right?
It seems contradictory to suggest that Plews’ production
could do with more polish, but occasionally the piece seems to fall on the
wrong side of erratic. In fact, this may be more the fault of the book (by
Armstrong and Mayer), which attempts to cram an awful lot into a short space of
time (in this production, 2 hours including an interval); for example, one short
scene takes us through a relationship breakdown, a metaphorical suicide, the
procurement of and resignation from a nine to five clerical job, and a reunion
with hometown faces. The absurdity in this lies with the fact that the musical
is fundamentally about stasis; about a demonised generation of millennial wasters
created by a socio-political system of capitalism, bigotry and propaganda. Whether
satirically intentional or not, most of the characters are traced lightly, as
befits the consumerist taste for simple, mindless entertainment – personal
complexities buried in favour of an unhinged inspection of national identity. The
nihilistic inevitability of the show and our trio of chums ending up exactly
where they were at the beginning is slyly audacious in its realism.
And this is why I am utterly beguiled by American Idiot – it features a plot where everything and nothing happens, the audience are
fed bit-sized morsels of angsty, yet melodic, rhapsodising which ultimately don’t
amount to anything – we’re back where we started, with Johnny reliving his
failed relationship with Whatshername, a girl he can barely remember (Sam Lavery) – everything is
fundamentally expendable whether we like it or not. Yet, perhaps we feel the
frustration of the characters a little more keenly than before. In a feat of
paradoxical genius (for what else can I call it?), Armstrong and Mayer have
created a mood piece which reflects our own dissatisfaction back at us.
Perhaps I’m overanalysing.
The music, as you’d expect, is full of thumping
crowd-pleasing tunes, sung with gusto by a cast that get stuck into grunge
life. Highlights include the titular opening number (an anthem of our time,
surely, Mr President?), the antithetical love-ballad ‘Give Me Novacaine’, and
the yearning triptych arrangement of ‘Wake Me Up When September Ends’. Sara
Perk’s set places us in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic 21st Century America, which playfully complements the use of screen graphics of rictus-grinned broadcasters.
On a personal note, American
Idiot indulged a nostalgia I didn’t even know I craved. There was a time
when I wouldn’t have felt dissimilar to Johnny and co. during my disillusioned,
misspent youth (underspent, overspent – however you want to put it), yet it also
brought back fond memories of my younger brother buying the original album and
making everyone listen to it on repeat. I vividly recall how he used to dress
up as Billie Joe Armstrong and get me to apply his eyeliner for him (he doesn’t
read this blog, so no embarrassment caused!). Oh to be young and carefree!
American Idiot is more than ‘just’ a jukebox musical
(a derogatory term which is unwarranted by most, in my opinion). It captures
the mood of those early days of the 21st century, when the world
portrayed to us by the media seemed to be a playground of progressive, exciting
action, yet fell short for so many.
American Idiot plays at the Haymarket Theatre,
Leicester until 2nd March and continues on a UK tour. For further
details visit: https://www.americanidiotthemusical.co.uk/
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| Tom Milner, Sam Lavery and Luke Friend in American Idiot. |
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