The first night of the new production of The Who’s classic rock opera Quadrophenia at the Theatre Royal, Bath, was heralded outside the theatre by dozens of bona fide scooter owners from the Radstock Devils scooter clubtogether with a number of scooter riders from the from Bath, Bristol, Weston, Swindon and Devon who were all involved in the scooter rideout before the show.showing off their beloved Lambretta and Vespa scooters faithfully restored sporting multi mirrors and parka clad owners. It was a great sight and put us in the mood at once for a spot of nostalgia for the 60s and our own misspent youth.
This production isn’t as clear-cut as the 1979 film in telling the story but focuses on Jimmy the mod and his four personalities, each played by a different actor, the romantic, the lunatic, the hypocrite and the tough guy. There is no dialogue and the plot unfolds through an explosion of music and dance. The costumes are pretty authentic showing the ‘mod’ uniform of green parka through to sharp ‘zoot’ suit and the Union flag is used often, in a tailcoat, jacket and lastly in a full length fur coat. The girls have the right uniform too, tight high-waisted trousers, nifty little mini-skirts with white boots (how I loved my Courrege white, flat, peep-toe boots; now how impractical is that and wouldn’t it be my mother who said so?) and in direct contrast Jimmy’s parents, father in drooped braces and rolled up sleeves and his mother in a cross-over apron, representing a past generation waiting to be rebelled against.
Ryan O’Donnell as Jimmy the romantic sings soulfully and his unrequited crush on ‘the Girl’ is evident. Sydney Rae White plays ‘the Girl’ beautiful, blonde and unattainable and gets to sing the only ballad amid all the drum beat and bashing at the end of the first half. Love, Reign O’er Me isn’t widely known but has a savage and haunting melody and she extracts maximum volume and passion from it. My Generation and Substitute have been added to the first half to add a bit of familiarity and punch and the band do a good pretty good Who impression on these.
Probably for reasons of practicality the scooters are all but absent except for one and the famous mods’ and rockers fight on Brighton beach kept to the second half and rather played down. The Holland Dozier Holland all time great, Heatwave, has been added, I’m not sure why but I enjoyed it and it rather relieved the black mood. Ryan Gage as Ace Face, the suave and suited pin-up mod by night but in reality a downtrodden bellboy is exactly right for the part, singing the song ‘Bell Boy’ with such despair that you feel sorry for him. The show finishes with a reprise of Love, Reign O’er Me and at this performance was followed by a standing ovation and who am I to disagree with that?
Jacquie Vowles