Review: Our Day Out – People’s Theatre, Newcastle
The Young People’s Theatre, of which Ross Noble was once a member, show off their amazing talents in their version of Willy Russell’s play Our Day Out.
The play, originally written for the BBC’s Play of the Week in 1977, follows the remedial class (euphemised as the ‘Progress Class’) from a local comprehensive school when they are taken on a school trip.
While the original teleplay and the subsequent stage adaptation saw the Liverpool class visit Wales, director Mark Buckley has staged this version, set in the 1980s, so that it has more relevance to a local audience by having a Newcastle class visit Yorkshire.
This is a good move as it adds to the poignancy of the projected black and white photography of the shipyards in Wallsend.
The unruly children’s disparaging comments about the industry, which we now know was in its dying years, suggest two things: firstly, we should be more grateful for what we have, and, also, perhaps that time and nostalgia can distort memory.
If photographs of dead industry suggest change, then the conflicting pedagogical philosophies between Mrs Kay and Mr Briggs (played here by Anna Robinson and Lara Cowler) suggest continuity.
Discourses surrounding inventive, ‘liberal’ approaches to teaching are as prevalent in the specialist press and industry journals now as they were when this play was conceived.
Interestingly, The People’s Theatre is staging Bennett’s The History Boys, another work which plays with this theme, later this year.
The young cast put on very professional and enjoyable production. They handle the comedy well, particularly Lauren Gillen and Jess Rootham, who are far from “boring”.
As bus driver Ronnie, Michael Critchlow shows off a crowd-pleasing comedy performance as Elvis, while, as troubled Carol, Alex Carmichael delivers a show-stopping reworking of Elton John’s “Your Song”.
However, despite these musical interludes, we should be clear that the version of Our Day Out being staged this week at the People’s is not the musical adaptation that was first performed at the Everyman in Liverpool in 1983.
It’s great to see some very promising talent in Newcastle. Catch this before the run ends on Saturday. You never know; there might well be a future Ross Noble on that stage.
Our Day Out runs at The People’s Theatre, Heaton, until 21 September 2013. Tickets are available on the door, from the theatre’s website, or by calling 0191 265 5020.
