The kids who go to the school in the play are not really smart and not rich, they are looked upon by most of the adults in the play as a group not individuals and this is a Key Idea which shows up a lot throughout the play the fact that wherever the kids go they cause havoc and mayhem is a reason why they are viewed in this way.
Carol is on first impression a very shallow, unintelligent person but when we get to know her better we find that she Is forgetful but she does in parts of the play turn out to be quite insightful and intelligent, Mr Briggs has a key role and really represents the reversal of power that the play embodies, his authority is challenged repeatedly by the kids but Carols overturns it. The scenes where Briggs is challenged are mainly at the beginning and middle and then there is a break in that particular theme after which carol’s cliff scene takes place and overturns the themes of the play.
The play follows the kids as they leave Liverpool ad go to the zoo, the café, the castle, the beach, the cliff, and the fair and then back to the school.
The idea that the kids are a group is shown when Les says “you lot” and when the zookeeper says “they’re not kids they’re animals…”
Willy Russell tries to make us sympathetic for the kids by emphasising the hardships in their lives this is shown when Mrs Kay says to the bus driver “they can’t afford chocolate and lemonade”
There are numerous conflicts between Mr Briggs’ and Mrs Kay’s teaching style Mrs Kay preferring to let the kids have fun whereas Mr Briggs wants them to learn and not have fun this also leads to Mrs Kay risking her job to let the kids have fun and finally Mr Briggs realises that the kids are not “meant” to be educated and that the “factories of England must have their fodder”
The themes of the play are all quite similar and tend to deal with the children as opposed to the adults, this show that Willy Russell meant them to be the focus of our attention when studying this play. The cliff scene is directed in a good way as it has all the power in the hands of Carol one of the least trustworthy kids, and strips Mr Briggs of all his power. As she is able to ruin his career with one move and tell him that the only reason he cares is because he’ll get it in the neck if she dies.
The play is complicated but enjoyable and Carols character at the beginning is very different to what it is at the end.
