Our Day OUt

Review by: Paul Towers, 28 April 2016

Our Day Out by Willy Russell

Curve and DeMontfort University co-production

Curve Studio 28 – 30 April 2016

“a sure fire winner”

For the sixth year running Curve has got together with DeMontfort University’s drama department for a co-production that allows students to experience the discipline of working in a commercial environment and perform in front of a paying audience.

This year’s offering is a sure fire winner with a script by award winning author Willy Russell whose previous hits have included Educating Rita, Shirley Valentine and Blood Brothers. Calling on his own experiences as a teacher in Liverpool, Russell has fashioned a story that is both funny and poignant as a remedial class of  youngsters whom many have consigned to the scrap heap are taken on a very rare school outing to Lincoln Castle. Alongside the liberal teachers who are convinced that their rag tag of hopeless cases can actually achieve something from careful nurturing is the school’s jobsworth deputy head teacher, Mr Briggs, who can see no other option than strict discipline to keep his rowdy charges in line. Of course a class full of outsider kids soon runs rings round him and, eventually, show him that loosening up and having some fun is no bad thing.

An excellent cast of students are in fine voice with well cast adult parts ensuring that a semblance of discipline appears to be maintained.

While the original television play was set in Liverpool and the north Wales coast for this production it has been transposed to Leicester, Lincoln and Skegness, which allows for some good natured mickey taking of the area.

First published in Western Gazette