With whom does Willy Russell intend the audience to sympathise, Mrs. Kay or Mr. Briggs and whose style of teaching would most benefit the progress class?

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English & Media

C20th Drama Assignment.

Willy Russell ‘Our Day Out’

“With whom does Willy Russell intend the audience to sympathise, Mrs. Kay or Mr. Briggs and whose style of teaching would most benefit the progress class?”

Answer with close reference to the text – using the dialogue and the stage directions.

The play ‘Our Day Out’ is about a progress class going on a trip with two of their teachers Mrs. Kay and Mr. Briggs. The personalities that Mrs. Kay has are that she is kind and understanding, meanwhile Mr. Briggs is rude, arrogant and unsympathetic towards the progress class.

When the play was set in Liverpool in the 1980s’ they were a lot of disasters. Liverpool suffered a recession that led to many thousands of business falling apart and hundreds of thousands of people losing their jobs due to the significant number of unemployment, Liverpool were amongst the highest rate of unemployment in the UK in the 80s’.

Finally, the play was written by Willy Russell who was born in Whiston, in 1914, he left school with one 0-level grade in GCSE English, he’s mum owned a hairdresser, but he went and worked six years of his life with his mum.

At the beginning of the play of Act One the audience feels little sympathy for Mr. Briggs because he is very arrogant and an unsympathetic person towards the children “You’ve got some real bright sparks here” Mr. Briggs shows open contempt for the students. He mocks them to their faces and this is ridicule would make them feel stupid and demotivated, Mrs. Kay on the other hand is a genuine person cares about the students and wants them to have a good day as of the line “By and large, I reckon she does a good job. It’s just when she gets the loose with them”. The Headmaster has a grudging respect for Mrs. Kay because, although she is idealistic, he knows she does a good job. However, she doesn’t just want to keep them quite and shut away; she wants the students to enjoy the school and learn about the world. This is why she is organising a fund day out.

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The audience also don’t like the way that the attitudes towards Mrs. Kay is because he is particularly better off without her “Good. The school would better off without her” Mr. Briggs feels that his style of teaching is the only one that works. He believes idealistic teachers like Mrs. Kay are wasting their time and that everyone should lower their expectations and accept students will fail.

The language of which Mr. Briggs uses is very offensive and is really arrogant, sarcastic and vulgar; this makes the audience think that Mr. Briggs is uneducated and undisciplined. This is proven ...

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