Through Detailed Reference To the Text Make Clear What We Learn About Mr Briggs and Mrs Kay and Show How Willy Russel Uses a Range of Dramatic Techniques To Manipulate Our Responses To Them At Key Points In the Play
Through detailed reference to the text make clear what we learn about Mr Briggs and Mrs Kay and show how Willy Russel uses a range of dramatic techniques to manipulate our responses to them at key points in the play Over the past few weeks our class has been studying "Our Day Out", a drama written by Willy Russell. It was first aired in December 1977 on the BBC. It is about a school trip to Wales for the 'progress class' of a Liverpool school accompanied by four teachers, two with very different ideas of how to teach the children. Mrs Kay, is one of the teachers on the trip is a liberal minded person who believes it is more important for the children to enjoy themselves on the trip, much to the annoyance of Mr Briggs. Mr Briggs is the complete opposite of Mrs Kay. He believes in strict discipline of children, because in his opinion they aren't capable of learning any other way. As the story progresses, the audience receives more clues as to each of the characters personalities and traits. The first character we get to see is Carol, a thirteen-year-old girl who attends the progress class. She is introduced to the audience as she attempts to cross the road. She is stopped by Les, the lollipop man. She explains to Les that everyone who is in the progress class is going on a trip. Les doesn't know what the progress class is so Carol explains it's for all the "backwards" kids. I
Our day out by Willy Russell - review
'Our day out is an interesting play based on a school trip with a group of underachieving children. This play conveys a deeper message about life in areas like Liverpool for people in the late 1970s. The playwright-William Russell skilfully created a strict old fashioned, selfish character: Mr Briggs and throughout the play convinces us that he is transforming into a fun, laidback person. But is he? This essay will focus on how an audience might respond to Mr Briggs, and how Russell uses his character to help the audience understand the plight of the children in the progress class. At the beginning of the trip Russell skilfully uses Mr Briggs sharp stern entrance onto the coach to accentuate his personality. "(Suddenly barks) Reilly. Dickson. Sit down!" This conveys to the audience his strict, military style way of teaching. A stereotypical, strict teacher image is portrayed in the audience's minds of Mr Briggs. And the audience take an automatic disliking to him. Within the first few minutes of the trip Briggs's old-fashioned streak is portrayed. He says to one of the pupils: "You now very well that on a schools visit you wear school uniform." This shows that Briggs is concerned about how the school is portrayed and he wants to set a good example of a good school. However this can be portrayed as a 'bad' attitude for a teacher to have. It comes across that he is
Our Day Out - a play written by Willie Russell.
Our Day Out Coursework Victoria Olubi Which of the teachers Mr Briggs and Mrs Kay are best suited for the needs of the progress class? This is a play written by Willie Russell. It is based around a school trip from the inner cities of Liverpool to Conway Castle in Wales. This play focuses on the Progress class and their first outing on a trip with two teachers called Mr Briggs and Mrs Kay. The Progress class is made up of children aged between12-14. They are special needs children with learning difficulties, and are taught by Mrs Kay who is in charge of the trip. This essay, concentrates on which of the teachers, Mr Briggs and Mrs Kay are best sited for the needs of the Progress class. The main pupil in which this play focuses on is a 13-year-old girl named Carol. Carol is a poor young girl who is eager to attend the trip; she rushes to school with enthusiasm. 'Carol rushes along the street wearing.... which doubles as a street outfit and her Sunday best'. (Scene one) This quote indicates that Carol is enthusiastic to go to school on this particular day. The writer uses this description of Carol to show that she comes from a poor background with little wealth. We know this because she wears her school uniform every day of her life. When Carol approaches the zebra crossing her conversation with Les, the lollipop man shows
How does Willy Russell Convey Social and Cultural Background in 'Our Day Out'?
Social and Cultural Background in 'Our Day Out' Willy Russell has written many plays over the last thirty years, but there is one feature that is common to all of them: the issue of social and cultural background. This is the situation of the characters; their surroundings; their class; the society in which they are brought up, and the culture of that society. It is this that can lead to the behaviour, feelings, opinions and general outlook of the characters. Russell explores the effects that society and culture can have on people in all his plays, but in none is it so poignant as in 'Our Day Out', the story of what happens when Mrs Kay takes her Progress class out of inner-city Liverpool on a school trip to Conwy Castle, Wales. Throughout 'Our Day Out' the issue of social and cultural background is ever-present, but it is discussed and conveyed in many different forms; the colloquial dialect Russell uses; the symbolism that is featured; the behaviour and attitudes of the children; the way that people react to these children, and the insights we get into their family lives. Willy Russell himself said that he writes for the theatre because 'it's concerned with the spoken rather than the written word'. In 'Our Day Out' we see the importance of the spoken word through the language that the children use. Having grown up and taught at a Comprehensive school in Liverpool, Russell
Our day out - Willy Russell
Our day out The play our day out, by Willy Russell was written during the 1970's. The play is set in Liverpool, which in the 1970's was not holding well economically, which had the population on a low morale. For example during this period of time Britain had become part of the European market, which left the docks in Liverpool desolated and no longer in use. This now left the city, which was once known throughout Europe for its great docks very deprived, and in recession with the coal industry also dying out and leaving the country yet more grief economically. The play is on the subject of a progress class (which is a class consisting of children with poor literate skills e.g. reading and writing etc). The class has a trip arranged to Conwy in Wales. On the way to their destination the audience are entertained in the midst of hilarious acts of cunningness and stupidity (a good example of this would be when the children visit the zoo on the way to Wales and end of stealing various zoo animals). In addition to the funny side of the play the audience also learn a serious note to the play, which I will comment in detail later in this assignment. The main characters in this play consist of two teachers and one young girl at the age of thirteen. Carol is the young thirteen-year-old student attending the progress class; she is branded for being shy and for possessing delicate
Wish Me Luck
WISH ME LUCK Tarek Nigam Mrs. Snowden ENG-1D8 May 1st Wish Me Luck Note: The novel is based on the true story of the sinking of the passenger liner City of Benares. According to Barker's account, there were ninety government-sponsored (CORB) evacuee children on the ship and ten additional children who had been privately paid for, four of whom did not survive. The final total of CORB children who died after the sinking of the Benares was seventy-seven, and not eighty-three, as stated in newspaper: it was discovered eight days after the sinking that further six children (and a group of adults) had survived in a crowded but unflooded lifeboat that had managed to make it almost all the way to Ireland, a distance more than six hundred miles, before being spotted by a British aircraft and rescued. The two torpedoed ships, Benares and Marina, were abandoned by the rest of the convoy: not one of the other ships searched for survivors, nut made away from the scene as fast as they could. The original destroyer escort, HMS Winchelsea, was not ordered back for rescue duty. The rescue vessel, HMS Hurricane, took eighteen hours to reach the scene. It is certain that had there been a rescue ship nearer at hand, there would have been many more survivors. It seems almost certain also that if the Benares had left the convoy, and sailed at her normal speed (faster)
Twentieth Century Drama Assignment based on 'Our Day Out' by Willy Russell.
Sian Rafferty Twentieth Century Drama Assignment based on 'Our Day Out' by Willy Russell. Title: How does Willy Russell use the story of a school trip to raise a number of points about the way society treats individuals? Comment throughout on how Russell creates dramatic impact for the audience. In this assignment I am going to focus on the way that Willy Russell uses the story of a school trip to raise a number of points about the way society treats individuals. Before I do that, I will consider the social and historical background of Willy Russell. Willy Russell's own experience of education and the fact that he gained nothing from it and the inequality of opportunities are reflected in a number of his plays including 'Our Day Out', 'Educating Rita' and 'Blood Brothers'. He left school with no qualifications whatsoever. He worked as a hairdresser for a while and he had a go at several other odd jobs. He also went to night school, gained an education and then trained to be a teacher. Willy Russell finally became a successful writer. Although it is a play about a school trip, Russell also deals with a range of issues including the inequality of opportunity; the failure of schools to develop pupils as in Mrs Kay's class and how difficult it is for individuals to change or break away from the expectations that
Our Day Out - How and why Mr Briggs changes
Dalbir Kaur 0H1/10MU Our Day Out Essay Question: Explain how and why Mr. Briggs changes during the trip, focus on the cliff scene and the techniques used to make it dramatic. And explain whether you think the changes are permanent or not. Well-known playwright, Willy Russell, wrote the play 'Our Day Out' in the 1970s. 'Our Day Out' turned out to be such a successful play that in the early 80s a major national channel (i.e. Channel 4) transformed it into a short film lasting approximately 90 minutes. The play is about a group of secondary school children who have a limited amount of intellectual skills, knowledge and abilities and they go from their school in a underprivileged area in Liverpool to Wales for a day out, which is intended to be to a castle in Conwy but ends up being a trip to shops, a zoo, the castle, a beach and a fairground. While they and their four teachers are on this trip they argue, fight and do not get on with each other at all, but as the day goes on one particular teacher starts to understand what the kids are like and the reasons behind why they're like that. 'Our Day Out' has a few main characters which are crucial to the plays plot and meaning, these are: Mr Briggs - a strict and disliked teacher; Mrs Kay - a laid back and caring teacher, and a student who goes by the name Carol who is not well off money-wise and education-wise, and she is a
Trip objectives: Collect stories from children in four different schools and gather it all together to produce a book
The diary of a teenager's experience: One week down in Khao Lak to help children tell their stories to the world Trip objectives: * Collect stories from children in four different schools and gather it all together to produce a book to be sold, hopefully, worldwide. * Paint a mural and fence at Pak Weep School Sunday 26th June 2005 The initial plan was to meet up at Bangkok International Airport, Domestic Terminal at 1400 hrs, by the orange chairs near the Check-In counter. A few were early, a few on time, and yes, some were late. No one is perfect. By the time we gathered everyone as a group and made changes to the groups, we were headed towards the check in counter, half an hour after our meeting time. It's the same every time. Pass your bags through the x-ray machine, queue up at the check in counter, and check in. After that simple process, we were slowly heading inside the waiting area in front of our gate. And for once, we didn't have to walk across the whole terminal, not that it's big or anything, but it can be pretty annoying considering Burger King is right at the front. Lucky for us, it was right opposite our gate. Lunch time. Or maybe not. We had two hours free time to do whatever we wished to do. For the majority of us, it meant sitting down on chairs or floors, or even laying down on the floor to chat to friends and play cards. Boarding time was at
Our Day Out by Willy Russel - Scene 31 Conway Castle Analysis
Matt Speak - 11.6 - Codsall Community High School - English Literature Coursework - 28th Sept 2001 Our Day Out by Willy Russel - Scene 31 Conway Castle I N T R O D U C T I O N Analysis Original Text: Mrs Kay: I was talking to those children. Briggs: Yes, and I'm talking to you, Mrs Kay. It's got to stop, this has. Mrs Kay: What has? Briggs: What has? Can't y' see what's goin' on? It's a shambles, the whole ill organised affair. look at what they did at the zoo. Just look at them here. [All around the castle they can see, from where they sit, kids running, pulling, laughing and shouting] They're left to race and chase and play havoc. Go knows what the castle authorities must think. look, when you bring children like ours into this sort of environment you can't afford to just let them go free. They're just like town dogs let off the lead in the country. My god, for some of them it's the first time they have been further than Birkenhead. Mrs Kay: [Quietly] I know. And I was just thinking; it's a shame really, isn't it, eh? You know, we bring them into a crumbling pile of bricks and mortar and they think they are in the fields of heaven. [Pause. He glares at her] Briggs: [Accusing] You are on their side aren't you? Mrs Kay: [Looking at him] Absolutely, Mr Briggs. Absolutely! Briggs: Look! All I want from you is what you're going to do about this chaos. Mrs