Jake Galloway
How Does Willy Russell enable the audience to empathise with the situation of women in his plays?
Willy Russell was born and brought up in, Whiston just outside Liverpool. He was born in 1947. Russell comes from a working class background. He grew up with mostly women around him: his mother, grandmother and his aunts. This had a big influence on his work and writing about women, and class, such as Shirley Valentine, Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons and Rita in Educating Rita.
After leaving school with one English O-level, first he became a ladies hairdresser and ran his own salon. Russell then undertook a variety of jobs, also writing songs which were performed in local folk clubs. Besides he wrote songs and sketches for local radio programmes. At 20 years of age, he returned to college and became a teacher in . Around this time he met his later wife Annie and became interested in writing drama.
Carol Chandler is the first character we meet in Our Day Out. She is the main character in the play. Carol is a thirteen year old girl who is described as arriving to school in her uniform which Willy Russell describes as doubling up as Sunday best. She is an underprivileged young girl and she goes to a class for unintelligent people in a secondary modern school in Liverpool. Mrs Kay in Our Day Out is a teacher what acts more like a mother towards carol. Carol is seen cuddling up to Mrs Kay on the coach. This is something a mother would do. Mr Briggs finds that Carol’s and Mrs Kay’s relationship strange, as he is not as open with his emotions as Mrs Kay and Carol. The moment on the cliff is a changing point in the play. Carol realises she has confidence, by telling Mr Briggs what to do. But the reason for her sudden confidence is because. Carol becomes aware of the fact that she is unable to change her life due to of her back ground and abilities. This is why she keeps asking Mrs Kay when they have to go home. In this scene Mr Briggs finds out that the children in the progress class are not too bad and his he grows very close to Carol in this scene and he appear to be a pleasant person compared to other people misconceptions and he is mean because he does not understand the pupils in the progress class.
