★ ★ ★ ★

Reviewer - Penny

*Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in return for an honest review.

Teechers Leavers ‘22 is John Godber’s reimagining of his iconic play, updated for the school leavers of 2022. Thirty-five years on from the original, the state education system is under more pressure than ever before. The play covers the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, looking at the day-to-day “new normal”, from masks and sanitising to Zoom lessons, and at the massive impact that the pandemic had on education and the social inequality that it heightened.

Before the play starts, the cast of three comes out into the auditorium, chatting in character to audience members. Once they’re called to the stage, we become an audience of pupils and teachers watching them perform their BTEC drama work, something we’re told they were only able to do over Zoom for the actual exam. This performance is a series of vignettes about life in a poorly performing Academy school, centring around the drama class and their new teacher, Miss Nixon (Terenia Barlow).

At first glance the play appears to offer a high-energy, fast-paced and comedic look at school life. Seen through the eyes of the teenage students, the teachers’ mannerisms and foibles are exaggerated – the only teacher who is natural is Miss Nixon and as the play progresses it’s clear that she’s the only teacher to really engage with her students, which both elevates her from the other characters but also isolates her from her teaching colleagues.

The actors frequently break into short dance routines to break up the scenes, lip-synching along to the music. It’s a clever nod to the viral Tik Tok videos that kept people busy during Lockdown. Scott Jenkins’ choreography is simple but effective, delivered with precision by the cast.

As well as offering plenty of laughs and quirky characters, Godber’s script also offers a scathing commentary on societal inequality. He focuses on the gulf between Whitewall Academy and the local private school, St George’s. Most of the Whitewall kids don’t have access to computers, doing their homework on iPhones. The drama department doesn’t have a permanent classroom, let alone a theatre, and creative students don’t have the option of studying drama, music and art – these aren’t core subjects so they can only pick one. We touch on the exam scandal, a postcode lottery when it came to awarding grades, and the kids remember their fellow pupils who have fallen through the net and not returned to school now things are back to “normal”. It’s a damning indictment of the Government’s failures and as it’s delivered in between the comedy, it hits harder and never sounds as if Godber is preaching to us.

Director Adrian McDougall has staged the play with great pace, bringing the best out of his talented trio of actors. The threesome work brilliantly together, instantly switching characters with just a simple change of posture or accent.

Playing Miss Nixon, Terenia Barlow shows real vulnerability and passion that stands out from her jaded colleagues and students, she then switches effortlessly to become one of the kids. Ciara Morris offers brilliant physicality as she brings her characters to life – with a shallow PE teacher and grumpy janitor standing out. Michael Ayiotis is the flamboyant headmistress, the bad boy of the school and the smug, top performing teacher, Dr Basford. I don’t know why this character walks around with his finger pointing up into the air, but it’s exactly the sort of teacher mannerism students would pick up on and exaggerate and a brilliant way of making him recognisable.

The play is very well constructed, subtly moving from laughs to serious comment as it progresses. However, I didn’t feel that it was necessary to set the action in Greenwich as the local references felt a little clumsy. The point of the play is that this could be any Academy school anywhere in the UK, so there’s no need to change place names. I also didn’t really see the need for the sub-plot involving the head teacher’s production of The Mikado. It didn’t add anything or have any relevance to the main story arc. However, these are very minor things that did not remotely impact on my enjoyment.

The play builds to an appropriate crescendo and has a very powerful ending. It’s hard-hitting and heartbreaking. But against all the odds, these students have found a passion for drama. It’s about more than hitting exam targets, we see how studying drama can build confidence and break down barriers. So, as well as feeling anger at how badly these students have been failed by the system, you also walk away with some of their hope and a renewed appreciation for the power of theatre.