Essay Opening - There are many chances in the play for the director to emphasise the unease present. These arise from the feelings that anarchy reigns in John Ebony's classroom;

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Essay Opening

 There are many chances in the play for the director to emphasise the unease present. These arise from the feelings that anarchy reigns in John Ebony’s classroom; from the tension surrounding John and Nadia’s marriage and finally from the fear that john’s career as a schoolmaster may already be at an end. The slight element of humour in the play provides the audience with light relief from the unease but when it rears it does so more forcefully.  This means the audience can never really relax. With careful manipulation of the individual elements the director can easily emphasise or reduce the unease whilst playing with the emotions of audience.

  It is clear that anarchy reigns in John Ebony’s classroom when the roles of teacher and pupil are switched. Cuthbun tells John Ebony that it is time for a test and in response John Ebony says ‘…well carry on then.’ John Ebony is clearly not in control of the class and makes no attempt to do so.       Also going on is the bullying. There are all the forms of bullying in the class as well as the school. For example pupil on pupil – ‘we were beating Wittering sir’. This shows that bulling is going on between the pupils. Aggeridge uses the word ‘we’ to refer to the class. Also there’s Teacher to pupil bullying-‘…I will lay out the first one …that touches me.’ Obviously this is a threat to the pupils and shows that there is bullying and shows there is no control in the class.

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Still there is more bullying, Pupil to teacher- ‘get away from the door, sir, or I’ll make you.’ Thephew says this to John Ebony after Ebony has confronted Thephew about Pelhams death. This conveys that the boys have no respect for authority. The bullying doesn’t stop there. Teacher to teacher bullying– Giles Cooper, the author, has shown this when the head interrupts John Ebony in the middle of a sentence ‘(interrupts)’. Surely this shows the audience that the head has no respect for his staff.

  The director would emphasise the bullying by using lighting to make situations look worse ...

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