Green Day's American Idiot - Art In Motion Theatre Company (5 April 2025)

In the early going of American Idiot there are videos projected on the rear screen that give us a sense of time and place and most importantly mood. These include snippets from 9/11 and its immediate aftermath. What strikes me is how a pivotal moment in history can be used as the catalyst for vastly different types of stories. Last year saw Come From Away celebrate community and compassion in the wake of that seismic event. Here is the polar opposite. A tale of disillusionment and the struggle to find meaning in a world wracked with strife. Conveyed through the uncompromising music of punk rock. 

Attitude is paramount. Anger, frustration, regret, and longing for something more, something better. Decisions are made that lead to cataclysmic consequences as three friends learn through their mistakes that self-acceptance and belonging is a hard won battle. Quite literally for one of the characters as the Iraq War is a key historical context that informs the story. 

Another element that strikes me is that this musical, unlike a recent production at the same venue, is based on an actual concept album - Green Day's eponymous hit - with additional songs taken from a subsequent offering. While not claiming to be a Green Day fan these are well known songs from a lauded release that won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album. The musical is sung through with the lyrics carrying the narrative. While the band isn't on-stage, the power and volume of the music does, at times, obscure those lyrics. However, it's the sheer brio of the playing and singing that impresses under Musical Director Callum Presbury. 

The in your face attitude is reinforced with muscular choreography by Jordan D'Arcy and Jason Nettle which often zombifies the cast and large ensemble as they stumble through the remnants of their character's lives. It also bolsters the sense of rage at the world and essential conflict as they collide with each other trapped in their own bubbles.

This is a particularly well sung production led by Liam Tickner as Johnny. He gives a full-throated performance as the central figure who descends into a drug fuelled malaise unable to cope with the disconnect between longing and reality. To such an extent Johnny creates a manifestation of his self-destructive tendencies in drug dealer St. Jimmy, played by Christian Dichiera, who also gives a full tilt portrayal. Salvation looms in the form of Whatsername played with tenderness by Jessica Reynolds until Johnny's demons outweigh his better angels and she leaves him. 

Bailey Bridgman-Peters is excellent as Tunny, the friend who makes a dramatically different choice on seeing Favourite Son (Aramis Martino) extol the virtues of American patriotism writ large. Tunny enlists in the army only to be shipped off to war and calamity. Bridgman-Peters has the bearing of a soldier but it's the slow unravelling of that demeanour into something far more vulnerable that is a standout. In Mary Carter's Extraordinary Girl, Tunny creates his own fantasy character as he laments the loss of a limb only to find acceptance through love with the real life nurse on which he bases his dreams. 

Mathew Leak completes the trio of friends - the one who didn't take the leap; caught in stasis by responsibility and inertia as his partner Heather (Breanna Redhead) falls pregnant. Leak doesn't have as many opportunities to shine as Tickner and Bridgman-Peters, largely anchored to a couch, stage left, as Will is frozen by apathy, pot, and booze. His work with Redhead though is affecting as she presents Heather as a far more spiky character not content with Will's bullshit. 

Director Chloe Palliser ratchets up the energy at every opportunity, utilising a large ensemble who use (often nerve-rackingly) movable platforms, shopping trolleys, and the multi-tiered set to clamber on and over to complement the raw nature of the music with kinetic motion. However, there are telling moments of reflection and solitude in quieter numbers played invariably by Tickner on acoustic guitar. There is also a lot of subversive undercutting of iconic American symbolism - especially the flag and the uniform - which speaks volumes as to the disaffection with the status quo. 

Highlights abound from Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Are We The Waiting, Give Me Novacaine, and there's a particularly classy touch with closing number Good Riddance (Time of Your Life). The Before the Lobotomy/Extraordinary Girl/ Before the Lobotomy (Reprise) sequence is also a deftly executed excursion into fantasy and nightmare. 

I really enjoyed this production for its no holds barred approach, a kickarse band that I thought for the longest time was a backing track - that's how good they were - and excellent vocal performances that captured the spirit of rebellion and vitriol when needed, and were plaintive and almost wistful at times as a lovely counterpoint. A powerful depiction of discontent and decay in a post 9/11 America that continues to spiral into the abyss. 

Green Day's American Idiot is on for three more shows only at the Don Russell Performing Arts Centre in Thornlie, 10-12 April. 

*Photos by Perfectly Picturesque Photography