The dance production is based on the 1973 album, written by Townshend and performed by The Who, which also inspired the 1979 cult film of the same name. Quadrophenia, A Mod Ballet aims to introduce a new audience to the story of young 1960s Mod Jimmy Cooper, played in the film by Phil Daniels, who escapes from his dead-end job as a post room boy by dancing, partying, taking drugs, riding his scooter and brawling. Produced by Sadler’s Wells, it will be set to an orchestral arrangement of the album by Rachel Fuller and Martin Batchelar, which was first heard in concert version at The Royal Albert Hall and recorded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Townshend told the PA news agency that he “felt moved” and “surprised” by the idea of a ballet so gave the green light for the new production to go ahead. He added: “It felt to me that for the first time that time had moved under the project. “Not that Quadrophenia story is about the present day, but it’s mythic and it works in a mythic way in the present day, just like Shakespeare does, just like Greek myth, just like fairy tales do.
It suddenly had a new nuance and a new moment, it felt to me, and we began about 18 months ago workshopping.” Townshend hopes that the ballet “brings a light way” to discuss modern issues such as knife crime and anxiety in young people, despite being set in the 1960s. “So if I suggest (for) you to go to Quadrophenia, that might help you take a stance on where you are today in y.
