John Godber is renowned for his small casts, and minimal sets and props, but you are always guaranteed maximum message, and Teechers Leavers ’22 is no exception, writes Michael Holland.
This play is an update on Godber’s 1980s play that highlighted the inequalities in our education system, inequalities that have worsened since the pandemic and this Blackeyed Theatre version is told with three actors having only three desks, three chairs and their bodies to bring over 15 characters to life.
I had some early confusion because scenes switch in an instant and the actors – all in school uniform – immediately become someone else, whether that someone else is a teacher, the school cleaner or the school bully. Even more discomposure came from the actors playing the same character!
Nevertheless, that was a minor diversion that did not lead me away from the true narrative here, which was that education in this country has got worse over the last 40 years.
Teechers Leavers ’22 is a journey through the last year of school for Salty, Hobby and Gail, and on the way we meet the teachers and other pupils. Having returned to the classroom after several lockdowns they talk about not having to learn by Zoom any more but still having to wear masks and sanitise hands.
Head Teacher Mrs Parry, played by the excellent Terenia Barlow (and sometimes by Michael Ayiotis), bemoans how she has had to cut much of the arts from the curriculum to the new supply teacher, Miss Nixon, who has come to take the drama class. The drama students, however, discuss how they are going to give the new teacher a hard time and proceed to do it, but without much luck as they end up liking her and what she was trying to do – after she had managed to gain control. Unsurprisingly, the real drama students from a local school who were in the audience, found this scene very realistic…
Mrs Parry blames a government ‘led by donkeys who had a completely different (private) education’, and Miss Nixon totally agrees that private schools never have to cut their curricula and if they ceased to exist then every child would get a decent education.
We venture into the Staff Room where the old school have their specific seats that no one else can sit in, and seem to be hostile to new, or supply, teachers who quickly learn not to go in there but to ‘hang around outside the bogs at break times’.
We meet Mr Basford (‘I’ve got a PhD in maths’) who runs his class with an iron fist (‘They respect discipline’), where talking is not allowed(‘You can’t learn if you’re talking’), and who is condescending to the young teachers. You think that he must have relished handing out six of the best in the days when beating children was accepted.
On the way through Whitehall Academy, there is Jackie Prime, the sexpot teacher who you know will end up in the Sunday papers for illicit sex with a pupil; Oggy Moxon, the school bully who gets his just desserts, and the nerdy, nervous teachers who just waste space.
A local private school, St George’s, crops up intermittently as a comparison to the horrific situation at Whitewall Academy. It is seen as an unreachable place where Whitewall teachers applied for jobs but never got the positions. St George’s has a magnificent arts programme ‘funded by a former pupil’.
And the Whitewall kids knew there was a difference; they discussed being short-changed by Covid compared to St George’s; they know that the rich kids grow up thinking they can represent the poor. And they are aware that no pupils there have to arrive early for a free breakfast because there was none at home.
As Miss Nixon settles into her role she discovers that some students are trying to complete their homework on their phones because there isn’t a computer at home they can use. She realises that the lack of amenities, as well as ambition, and the problems in education today are just the same as when she went to school, so becomes determined to raise funds to keep the arts going, but it is an uphill battle.
Eventually, the fight is too much for Miss Nixon who applies to St George’s and is accepted.
Towards the end, we hear that strict Mr Basford could have taught at St George’s but chose not to so he could stay and teach those that needed his expertise the most. In those last minutes, our hero had changed from young Miss Nixon to the old battle-axe Basford.
Godber absolutely nails the various types of teacher found in state schools. We all had a Miss Prime, a Miss Nixon, and several Basfords. Every school had an Oggy. This production had great direction from Adrian McDougall, assisted by Godber’s daughter Martha, and a wonderful cast. Having mentioned two of them, the third actor Ciara Morris was quite brilliant as the nervous teacher and the Mrs Overall cleaner who wanted to sweep the drama class out with the dirt and dust – As well as bringing half of the pupils to magnificent life.
Teechers Leavers ’22 is a state of the nation piece that will be seen and heard for many years to come until John Godber feels it needs another update.
Greenwich Theatre, Crooms Hill, London, SE10 8ES until 29th April. Times: 7.30pm, Saturday matinee 2.30pm. Admission: £18.50, £16.
Booking: www.greenwichtheatre.org.uk
