Fred Perry shirts buttoned to the collar. Hormone levels ramped up to 11. Amphetamines washed back with Newcastle Brown Ale. Vespas shoved off a cliff. The Who’s classic rock opera album about teen angst was turned into the cult 1979 film starring Phil Daniels, Sting and Leslie Ash. A tale of alienation and the desire to belong, it was laced with the dangerous buzz of rejecting an ugly status quo in 1960s England. Some may remember every spat-out line from songs like ‘The Real Me’ on the 1973 record, or can still air drum every chaotic fill from Keith Moon’s original performance. Now, first-time-around mods and rockers are about to face off with a new interpretation of Who co-founder Pete Townshend’s original themes as the world premiere of a dance adaptation, Quadrophenia: A Mod Ballet sets off on a UK tour. Likewise new audiences of TikTokers and young keyboard warriors will discover the ever-pertinent story of troubled mod Jimmy and his struggles with adolescent identity.  

It’s a co-production from Sadler’s Wells and Universal Music UK, where The Who’s original music has been adapted into a classical score by singer-songwriter Rachel Fuller and recorded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Fuller was born in the same year as the album Quadrophenia came out and is now Townshend’s wife and long-term musical collaborator. 

The production features sharp costumes by British fashion designer Paul Smith, and projections of crashing Brighton waves from Yeast Culture, the London team who lit up George Heriot’s School as part of the opening performance in last year’s Edinburgh International Festival. For the stunning choreography, they have called in Paul Roberts, who has staged moves for major artists including Harry Styles, The Spice Girls, Diana Ross and Prince.

No, this version doesn’t feature savage beatings with planks of wood to the face, or tables lobbed through windows of seaside cafés. If there are any doubts, however, about how all that youthful piss and vinegar can translate into another language, that of ballet movement and orchestral sound, those doubts bite the dust after an early look at rehearsals. 

Just as the album opens with the rolling sounds of the sea, the mod ballet begins with a breathtaking sequence of five male dancers, a liquid ripple of limbs, gently arcing and swaying like a serene pattern of waves. Paris Fitzpatrick, who plays Jimmy, is at the front, an astonishing, sinewy blend of boyish naivety and surly defiance. We follow him to the shrink, see him idolise stylish older men in dancehalls, watch him burn with desire for more as his parents atrophy in their living room, listless in a blur of Guinness and regret. 

I meet with the show’s director, Rob Ashford, in the impressive new Sadler's Wells East (sister venue of Sadler's Wells dance theatre), opened in February this year in the former Olympic Village in Stratford. It’s a few weeks into rehearsals and the sequences are already visually arresting: bravado and ebullience channeled into slick throngs of mob anarchy, or tender, wordless exchanges of yearning.  

Is the story of rebellion particularly apt in our current climate of civil unrest, divisive policies and deep-seated anxieties, I ask? Where young people increasingly feel mistrust for their politicians and protest against everything from fascism, climate disaster, LGBTQ+ rights and economic hardship? ‘Sure, it’s absolutely a part of it, no question,’ nods Ashford. ‘But this particular rebellion is born out of self-expression. The young people in Quadrophenia just wanted to be individuals. The unrest came from that. The competition too. The sense that you’re wrong, unless you do it our way, which is kind of where we are now.’

A former dancer turned choreographer and director, Ashford has worked on productions of Evita, Frozen and Cat On A Hot Tin Roof on Broadway and the West End, winning Tony, Emmy and Olivier awards along the way. This ballet is not an adaptation of the film; Ashford has made a brand-new work, inspired by Townshend’s original concept album, in particular the lyrics and detailed album liner notes about the life of a teenage working-class mod. Lead character Jimmy is working as a dustman, fancying girls from afar and seeing a psychiatrist about his mood swings. He’s frustrated with his homelife and craves something more meaningful.

‘I always try to go back to the source material,’ says Ashford. ‘Of course, the original creators aren’t always available, or if they are, they might be of an age or stage in their career where they really want to take you back to then. Pete wants us to go forward, with the thoughts of then and apply them to 2025. What’s fascinating and enlightening for us, working on the piece, is being able to have Pete with us. Pete is so involved in the production. He’s an amazing touchstone for the whole thing; I wouldn’t even say a reference, because he’s been a huge help with specific, practical questions about the characters and the staging. He’s been able to share some real poetic pearls about how people felt in that world at that time.’ 

‘These young people wanted to leave that post-war family life behind,’ Ashford continues. ‘They wanted to step away from that and aspire to greater things than their family. Jimmy’s at that age where he wants to find his own way. That’s part of the story that I love, that we’re working really hard to bring out of the piece. We meet Jimmy’s parents and see their influence on his mindset. Their pas de deux in their living room is one of my favourite scenes actually.’ 

We also watch Jimmy in a boisterous, playful duet with dancer Euan Garrett, playing his best friend who happens to be a rocker. ‘It follows this very tense scene between the two gangs. I come on and, at first, we play it like a fight might go down, but they’ve been mates since kids,’ says Garrett, a ballet dancer who went to primary school in North Berwick before working with Scottish Ballet, English National Ballet and Matthew Bourne. He made his West End debut playing the title role in Billy Elliott. 

‘Society has kind of pushed them to be either a mod or a rocker. Probably because of our parents. No sharp suits for me: I’m in leather with a big quiff. Neither of us like the rivalry; we think it shouldn’t be a thing, but it is. It’s very Jets and Sharks or Montagues and Capulets, it’s that vibe.’

Contemporary ballet dancer Serena McCall grew up in Falkirk before graduating from the Rambert School Of Ballet And Contemporary Dance in 2023. She recently danced in the film Wicked and Disney’s Snow White as well as playing Roxanne onstage in the North American tour of Message In A Bottle, a dance adaptation of Sting songs. 

‘I play Mod Girl,’ explains McCall, ‘she has dreams of her own, to be a fashion designer. She’s in a relationship with Ace Face, but there’s something about Jimmy that she’s drawn to, maybe something that’s missing with Ace. It’s a weird dynamic. Jimmy wants to be Ace Face because he wants the girl. We dance in a trio, which leads into more of a sensual scene, from Jimmy’s perspective.’

Jimmy’s relationships with his rocker friend, as well as Ace Face and Mod Girl, allows the show to explore some of Quadrophenia’s themes through a subtle queer lens. Although the album’s lyrics didn’t overtly deal with homosexuality or bisexuality, it was hinted at; either in lines like ‘If you complain you disappear/ Just like the lesbians and queers’ from ‘Helpless Dancer’ or in the more general theme of feeling like an outsider, or pressure to conform to heteronormative values.  

‘If we’re diving a bit deeper, for my character, it might not necessarily be just a friendship,' says Garrett. ‘I think he might kind of admire Jimmy. They are meant to be around 17 and at that age, my character doesn’t really know where he lies in society, in terms of mod or rocker, but also his sexuality. He’s lost and confused. He wants to be like Jimmy. We were given scripts at the beginning and it was hinted at in that. Rob and I discussed it. I loved the idea; we decided to really push that and play it that way.’ 

Seeing the rehearsals and the masks the young boys must wear, the dance adaptation pulls its focus onto this male existential crisis, the questioning and searching of that difficult pre-adult phase. The more sinister and criminal aspects of this teen turmoil were explored in the recent chilling Netflix drama, Adolescence. 

‘I really feel that a duet between the two guys should be shown in every high school,’ says Ashford. ‘Jimmy and his best friend had to hide that friendship, but when they’re alone, they can be mates. This is a dance theatre piece about a young man’s mental health. Jimmy doesn’t buy into this toxic masculinity thing that we’re all dealing with right now in our world. Jimmy is more of a poet or a free spirit, more like Pete. He’s not a loner; he’s still part of a group, but he’s finding his path and finding like-minded people finding their path too. Maybe all those paths join up and make one giant path for others to pass down. I’m hoping young people will watch it and see that aspirational side. Jimmy’s not in it for the fighting, he wants enlightenment. Without real guidance from family, or real community, you’re relying on your own soul or your spirit to guide you. It’s probably scary but may be the most fulfilling way to find your own path.’

Quadrophenia: A Mod Ballet is touring the UK until Saturday 19 July; main picture: Johan Persson.