Explosive class action as parents and teacher collide
When Brian and Donna are called in by their son’s teacher there’s…
The relationship between teachers and parents can be just as loaded as that between teacher and pupil. Teachers can be subtly patronising, parents can be snootily superior. Who the hell are these people with their air of infallible authority who think they know more about our kids than we do?
And parents carrying resentful baggage from their own experience of school bring their own complexities; just like Brian (Stephen Jones) and his wife Donna (Sarah Morris), called in to discuss their young son’s schoolwork with the boy’s teacher Ray (Will O’Connell).
Or is it more than schoolwork? Ray, in an unguarded moment, drops the word ‘delinquency’.
Brian, a taxi-driver, initially uneasy and apologetic, is suddenly energised with class-conscious assertiveness, while Ray, finding it difficult to express himself simply, struggles to regain his composure and authority.
And that’s the way this apparently simple play develops into an emotionally explosive triple confrontation as the relationship between teacher and pupil becomes the catalyst for revelations about the lives of separated parents Brian and Donna, that eventually exposes the private and professional life of the teacher. In the slowly rising atmosphere of tension, Brian’s aggression is balanced by Donna’s initially more reasonable approach but even she eventually becomes involved in the anger-driven interactive erup- tions involving blame, remorse and recrimination. It’s not quite Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf but it has some of that play’s riveting intensity. Very soon the simplest statements are being misinterpreted and teacher Ray’s private life and professional competence become the focus of attention.
He, who started out as the one in control, becomes the one on the dramatic defensive.
An extra layer is added when Jones and Morris intermittently take on the roles of the wayward son and another girl getting special lessons from teacher Ray. These interludes add nice touches of humour without losing any of the dramatic force.
An element of plot that’s probably unnecessary is introduced, but at least it fits in with the general drift of a story that explores our relationship to authority, the hidden undercurrents in family life and the difficulty of ever really knowing another person. The writing, by David Horan and Iseult Golden, is sharp and economical, and the three performers inhabit their contrasting roles with extraordinary conviction.
Transfers to The New Theatre from 3-14 Oct, with matinees Oct 7 & 14.