When Mrs Kay's 'Progress Class' are unleashed for a day's coach trip to Conway Castle in Wales, it is an celebration of the joys and agonies of growing up and being footloose, fourteen and free from school. However this is more than a romp - it highlights the depressing present and empty future for these comprehensive no-hopers from the back streets of Liverpool, for whom a day out is as much as they can expect.
The first comical incident I have decided to analyse starts near the beginning of scene four. It is set outside the school in Liverpool. The progress class are trying to get on the coach, but the driver insists that they have to be searched. Mrs Kay takes him to the side and proceeds to explain about the children.
“The kids with me today don’t know what it is to look at a bar of chocolate. Lemonade never touches their lips. These are the children, Ronny, who stand outside shop windows in the pouring rain, looking and longing and never getting. Even at Christmas, at Christmas-time when your kids from the better schools are opening presents and singing Christmas carols, these kids are left to wander the cold cruel streets.”
In this scene, Willy Russell uses humour to introduce Mrs Kay, to show her relationship with the kids and approach to her job. We know that she is misleading the driver, and it makes her seem, as Briggs later says “on their side” meaning she would rather let the children do what they want rather than teaching them anything. This creates comedy because as Mrs Kay is lying to the bus driver about how deprived the children are, while on the bus the children are revealing their numerous sweets and lemonade bottles. Within this scene there is also an important message, as is in most of Russell’s comedy. The fact that the bus driver actually believed Mrs Kay’s story, just by looking down the streets. This shows how bad the states of the children’s homes are. If I was directing this event I would try to outline the comical side as much as possible, it would look funnier if you could see the children on one side and the bus driver on the other. So while Mrs Kay is telling the bus driver that the children are deprived. The children can be seen eating, drinking and laughing on the bus. This could be achieved by put a screen between the two acts, or possibly a bus stage prop with the children eating and drinking in the background while Mrs Kay is talking to the bus driver.
The second comical incident starts in scene fourteen, the kids are getting off the coach on to a motorway lay-by. Although Mrs Kay doesn’t mind the way the kids are running around, Mr Briggs is furious. He stops one boy called Ronson and gives him a lecture. Inside the shop the kids are stealing everything they can, what makes this scene comical is the fact that after Briggs has scolded Ronson he thinks that he has actually made a difference.
“He watches as Ronson walks into the shop. Satisfied, he turns to Mrs Kay”
This is untrue, because we know that when Ronson gets into the shop, he will be stealing the same as all of the other kids. This event derived its comedy from the children not getting caught after stealing, however in the next scene it is comical when they go too far and are caught.
To stage this scene I would put the counter in the middle of the stage, sidewards, so you can see both the children and the shopkeepers, to make this scene more comical I would put the sweets on high shelves that the children were pointing at to be on the other side of the stage, so that the shopkeepers would be running all other while the children were stuffing there pockets.
In the next selected scene we begin to see the contrasting elements of Mr Briggs and Mrs Kay, this also adds another element of humour. They have continuous arguments between them about the children; their behaviour and how they should be treat. Mr Briggs thinks that the only way to treat under achieving kids is by strict discipline. While on the other hand Mrs Kay feels sorry for them and lets them do whatever they want. Both of these philosophies can be seen as an incorrect way to treat these children. Although an average between the two would be perfect. We also see the differences between them through there speech. Mr Briggs’s educated, formal tone. And Mrs Kay’s informal although still educated speech. Mr Briggs’s language shows his inability to relax in his role of a teacher, and his distance from the world of the pupils.
In the scene, the animals in the zoo can be compared to the children. For instance;
“Don’t forget it was born in captivity so it wont know any other sort of life”
The children are also caged, they are caged in their education and in their social environment, and so they also will not know any other sort of life. A question of humanity is raised in Mr Briggs’s teaching methods, he does not trust the children, or treat them as human beings, This again comes back to the children’s contrast to zoo animals. Although Mr Briggs is finally shown to give a little trust to the children by letting them go off on their own.
Through the dialogue and stage directions it can be seen that the children egg each other on to steal the animals
“Ey you. Y’not supposed t’ touch them.
(Ronson answers by picking up the rabbit and gently stroking it. Carol reaches over to join him stroking the rabbit but he pulls it close to him protectively.)
Well. I’ll get own of me own”
The children’s deprivation causes them to want to own an animal for themselves. As with the shop scene their social background means that they can’t distinguish between right and wrong in some situations. Even though, this incident highlights the plight of the children, it is still comic partly because Mr Briggs is seen to have been fooled and the unexpectedness of the children’s actions.
Russell’s uses a lot of adverbs in his staging directions, to show emotion in the characters. For instance in Scene fifteen,
“The counter cannot be seen for pushing, impatient Kids. The two men are working frantically” and in Scene thirty “Briggs pauses for a long, staring, angry and contemptuous moment”.
By using the adverbs, the author directs the characters behaviour. Through witnessing their behaviour it is possible for the audience to imagine the emotions that the characters are feeling at the time. The stage directions are detailed and precise which allows the actors to display the emotions that the author wishes to betray.
If I were directing this play I would have the stage as though it was the whole bus, so you could see everyone, and exactly what is happening. It would be easier to see the emotions of the children and Mr Briggs when he shouts at them.
Overall, Russell has made effective comedy by combining pathos and humour together. This effectively raises a number of serious points about society, and would make the audience see these points but also enjoy the play. This play would undoubtedly open people’s eyes to the state of education in the UK.