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Stars explained: * A production of no real merit
with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not
enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real
life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A
good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely
achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a
great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major
flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic
which lifts theatre to another plane. |
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Damien Dickens' parent Brian makes his forceful point to his son's teacher Ray McCafferty played by Tony Orbell Class Grange Playhouse, Walsall ***** Class. There’s upper, middle and lower of course, and then we have the likes of Yr6 and Yr13, and didn’t we used to have fifth forms and sixth forms, and then there is knowing where apostrophes go and what wine to have with lobster, or what trainers are seen as lit these days (do the yoof of today really say that, lit?). Class does a lot of heavy lifting in our jumble of a language. It can be many things with many definitions and a fair number of its manifestations are competing for space in this excellent bittersweet comedy with its intertwined storylines all taking place, appropriately enough, in a classroom - an excellent set, incidentally, from director Sam Allan, right down to the primary school seats designed to test adult hips and knees. We open with a parent teacher meeting with dad, Brian Costello awaiting the arrival of his wife Donna, sitting somewhat uncomfortably in the classroom of teacher Ray McCafferty who has called them in to discuss their nine-year-old son Jayden. It is a meeting which is to open up not just a can of worms, but an industrial sized catering pack of them spreading far beyond Jayden’s small, local school in a working class area – class, it’s that word again The meeting is a catalyst, the spark to shine a light on a struggling education system, learning difficulties, inherent or imagined prejudices, the uneasy parent teacher relationship, no doubt conditioned by our own school days, and all wrapped up in anger, frustration, emotion and . . . laughs. Brian, who we learn is a taxi driver, and his wife Donna, a part time hairdresser, have recently separated. Damien Dickens gives us a sort of hopeless swagger, a bolshie attitude you suspect is born out of resentment rather than confidence, and he seems to live life as if fighting against an anger simmering just below the surface.
Togther again, for a moment at least, with Brian and his estranged wife Donna played by Emily Brownhill as Donna Emily Brownhill’s Donna is trying hard to be a good mum to their two children and you suspect is enjoying the taste of freedom away from the moody Brian, someone she has known since school and who she married young with Jayden about to join the celebrations in somewhat less than nine months time. Newly independent, newly confident perhaps but she still cuts a sad figure having spent a year in a special needs class after missing a year of school which has left her feeling educationally and socially damaged and inadequate. Both were former pupils at the school with Brian, who you suspect was hardly a model pupil, feeling he was abandoned by the system, yet still has a mix of fear and loathing for not so much the school as his past experience there. His often blind defence of his son you suspect is more a cover for himself and his time at the school. When they discover the reason for the meeting, their son falling behind in reading and writing, Donna wants whatever is best for her son but not at the price she has paid, being labelled through life as special needs – as a thicko. They protest but you see they still feel intimidated by the school, still feel as if it owns them - even raising their hands to ask questions. As for Mr McCafferty? He has his own problems which follow him around like a cloud. He and his wife, Jennifer, are living apart; that is a fact rather than a factor, but perhaps it gives him a certain empathy, or at least an understanding of the Costello relationship, either that or it brings everything too close to home. It is an exceptional performance from Tony Orbell giving us a teacher who is quiet, unassuming, meek even, who cares desperately about the children in his care, who wants them to succeed and reach their full potential. It is with the adults, the parents, where he starts to struggle. His confidence, control and ability to do and say the right things to both enthuse and inspire his pupils is nowhere to be seen with adults where he seems nervous and way out of his comfort zone.
Emily Brownhill rolling back the years as Kaylie, the nine-year-old who likes to dance with Damien Dickens as Jayden behind This can be seen in his teaching as we see him with Jayden, Damien Dickens again in Just William mode, and Kaylie, with Emily Brownhill gaining a costume and losing years as a little girl. The pair manage the transition well with quick and simple costume changes. It is never easy for adults to play children and the laughs here come from the actions of the children not because of adults pretending to be children. Jayden, we know, has learning difficulties but so does Kaylie and we are to discover that she lives with her nan in a different sort of broken home, which is about to create its own trauma. The teaching and the meeting run in parallel and we see Mr McCafferty struggling to engage comfortably with parents, hiding behind jargon, percentiles, for example or talk of literacy instead of the simpler reading and writing. It builds a barrier between teacher and lesser educated parent breeding its own resentment. Yet, at the same time, we se him at ease with the two struggling pupils in his homework club, full of ideas, simple explanations and encouragement and determination to help them to improve and catch up. Brian’s hair trigger on his emotions was always going to be a problem, and so it proves in his relationship with Donna, with the school and Mr McCafferty. His go to ploy is to blame everyone else for his own inadequacies. Donna has found her voice and found herself, no longer damaged goods, while Mr McCafferty’s emotions finally erupt like a volcano fuelled by his failing marriage with its own personal sad loss, his legal dispute with a difficult family, his frustration with the school and his banned club to help struggling pupils, the parents he has to deal with and the pupils he tries to save. The ending is unexpected, something you are unprepared for and one which makes you think. It sounds like an angst-fest, a real bun fight, but Irish playwrights Iseult Golden and David Horan have created a play with charm, moments of pathos, and plenty of humour in what is a very human and well written story. It is beautifully acted with the belligerent Brian, surprisingly steely and determined Donna and meek and mild, at least most of the time, Ray McCafferty and Sam Allan, on an impressive directorial debut, has given us both pace and direction in a lovely production. It is always a delight to discover a new play (2018) you have never seen and know little about and this is one well worth discovering. To 23-11-24. Roger Clarke 14-11-24 |
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