Teechers has been around for many years and has been adapted to meet the cultural norms of the different iterations. However, the play remains at heart a beautifully and very comically observed glance at the problems that have plagued and continue to plague the state education system in our country.
Fairly uniquely, the drama unfolds as a play within a play as three students enact the scenario of a year at a comprehensive school in the North of England as their final BTEC submission. As the students themselves say their coursework is based on their own experiences but names have been changed to protect the innocent while some scenes have been altered for dramatic effect.
The students themselves- Hobby (Sophie Suddaby), Salty (Levi Payne) and Gail (Jo Patmore) – give the audience a real insight into the thoughts of a typical Year 11 student in a school that is struggling to survive. In general, their thoughts are that education has let them down especially with the inability to choose the subjects that they really want to study and the indifference shown to them by what at times seems a never-ending change in the staffing membership. The end to being a school student cannot come quickly enough.
Anyone who has worked in a school environment will recognise the typicalities of the staffroom and its members. The teacher who has no interaction with his/her students but rules with an iron fist to ensure that results are obtained; the teacher who just can’t wait to get out of the profession; the teacher who lacks any ability to control a class of unruly students; the teacher – usually male – who believes they are god’s gift; and the teacher who believes that they are so well-educated and so proficient at their chosen subject that they cannot be touched. Above all, there are many Heads desperate to find a project that will help their establishment to satisfy the demands of Ofsted
School students of recent times will also see a bit of themselves in the leavers as classes are disrupted, efforts are made to disguise the alcohol inside them as they try to gain entry to the Christmas Ball where at least one lad will make a pass at a teacher he fancies, fun is made of the desperate attempts to eliminate classroom disruption and the site staff who would like to be working anywhere else but with kids.
And for the new Year 7 arrivals life can be a nightmare as they try to adapt to life in a Secondary school. The member of staff in charge of timetabling always wants to be too clever by half that most students – and some staff members – finding it a minefield to ascertain what lesson they should be in and in what group, room or even building.
Little wonder that a main character of the students’ drama is Miss Nixon – a newly qualified teacher who has empathy with her students both in her tutorial group and in her chosen teaching subject and with hidden talents to boot.
Sadly, the new teacher – despite being adored by those pupils that she has regular contact with – will always find it difficult to survive. Her subject is Drama which is a non-core subject and so she sees her classes shunted around from one unsuitable space to another. Even worse, there is no respite in the staffroom. Most of the seating is already reserved and she makes the fatal mistake of arguing with a senior member about his decision to send his children to private school, arguing that all schools should be equal and all students should be given equal opportunities. Unfortunately for Miss Nixon, she has spoken out to the man responsible for the cover timetable – a system to cover teacher absenteeism – and finds that all the free time that she should have to develop her skills are lost to the supervision of the unruliest classes.
With the lights of the local private school and its support for Drama shining brightly will Miss Nixon swallow her ideological pride, desert the students who need her and take the shekels on offer?
The three actors cover the more than twenty characters in Teechers with superb skill as they smoothly move from student to staff member, from gender to gender and from young school student to aging site staff member. Beautiful transitions made with consummate ease.
Congratulations to Jane Thornton for some excellent Direction but also to Graham Kirk for his set design and Martha Godber for her choreography.
Above all many thanks to Writer John Godber for a powerfully perceptive piece of drama that can be continually updated. As a former member of the teaching profession, Godber can air his frustrations at the current position of state education. His main wish would probably be that a play such as Teechers would not be required. Until then, this is a play full of thought-provoking comedy and should not be missed.
This Outstanding production will never be placed under Special Measures.
The production has a running time of approximately two hours including interval and continues until February 7th. For ticket information contact 01782 717962
