Punk Rock
Tom directed Simon Stephen's iconic play Punk Rock in the Theatre At The Mill, Newtownabbey. The play was produced for Northern Regional College by Gemma McGranaghan and Choregraphed by Gary Rowntree
The play was performed by students from Northern Regional College's performing arts. Many of the cast have gone on to have careers in the performing arts.
Punk Rock takes place at a high school in the midst of exam season. Lily arrives at the school and is immediately taken into a fold of students. William takes a strong liking to her and shows her the abandoned library where the gang hangs out. She meets the sadistic Bennett and his girlfriend Cissy, the philosophical outcast Chadwick, Nicholas, and Tanya.
Throughout the play, most of the characters reveal some variety of mental disorder. Lily is addicted to burning herself with a lighter and Cissy is a type-A perfectionist. Bennett reveals a repressed homosexuality and a vicious, violent side. Chadwick allows himself to be bullied with an attitude evoking Stockholm Syndrome. William hears voices, lies compulsively, and loses track of reality.
“I did it because I could. I did it because it felt fucking great.”
William to Doctor Harvey, Scene 7
