Teechers

I have to admit that I have never seen this John Godber play before coming to The Joseph Rowntree Theatre this evening, but I am so glad I did.

This was sheer magic from the start right until the curtain came down at the end. The three young women on stage, who all played a myriad of characters and who are in their final year at school decide perform their end of term play.

This is based on John Godber’s own experiences whilst he was a Drama Teacher at Minsthorpe High School in West Yorkshire and much of the comedy derives from both the pupils and the staff at this school.

The three characters, Hobby, Salty and Gail played by Sara Howlett, Sophie Bullivant and Laura Castle respectively were nothing short of outstanding, praise must also go to Jamie McKeller who directed the piece.

I don’t know how many actual characters these three played, but it was a lot, I can tell you, all being interspersed throughout the production with the very clever use of props such as hats, scarves, glasses, cups, jackets as well as three school desks and three blackboards.

The action was extremely quick but not too quick that you lost any of the plot and although very quick and the three were using various accents to portray the different characters their diction was first class.

Whilst playing the various characters it would have been very easy for them to each stick to the same characters all though this piece but no, they didn’t make it easy for themselves, Maybe it was Jamie who decided not to make it easy for them as they each one played almost all the characters at various times, I think there was only one which was the teacher played by Sara who kept that character as well as playing many, many more.

What was amazing was each of the characters had a specific accent or inflection in their voice, and this was kept up throughout the piece, no matter who it was playing it at any particular time, they all managed to remember the accents etc to ensure the audience knew exactly who it was there were portraying.

Speaking to Sara Howlett, Hobby, after the show it was obvious they had all enjoyed rehearsing and performing this together, as well as being great friends who were able to bounce off each other during the action.

 As I mentioned earlier this is a very wordy piece but every word was heard, however not only is it very wordy, it is also a very physical piece too and I would suspect all of them will be totally exhausted by the end of it, however their performances were just as good at the end as they had been at the start.

This is a production which has to be seen to be appreciated, however I would think you would have to go a along way to see a production and a set of actors as good as these.

I also need to mention the sound and lighting which had to be slick to ensure every effect was spot on cue, and judging from what I saw and heard, I would say they were.

Congratulations to each and every one of you and also Jamie McKeller for having the vision to get this to the stage.

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