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
The generation of audience sympathy and identification in Willy Russell's 'Our Day Out'
The generation of audience sympathy and identification in Willy Russell's 'Our Day Out' 'Our Day Out' is a play first seen on television, it was written by Willy Russell in 1977. Mrs Kay teaches a class with learning problems and decides to take them on a coach trip. I will be focusing on the characters 'Mrs Kay' and 'Mr Briggs'. The scenes that I will be focusing on are the ones which I think 'Mrs Kay' and 'Mr Briggs' show their true side and find out about them. The play was set in the 1970's, when teachers had much more powers over pupils in the schools. They had the rights to hit pupils; one example was 'the cane'. Pupils had more respect for the teachers in the 70's rather than these days. The scenes that I will be focusing on are 'The Cliff' , 'The School Gates' , 'Inside The Coach' , 'In The Zoo' , 'The Beach' and 'The Fun Fair'. Mrs' Kays and Mr Briggs's relationship with the pupils vary. Mrs Kay is a lot friendlier with the pupils whilst Mr Briggs uses a different teaching method which results in the pupils not liking him and is frightened of him. At the start of the play the stage directions describe Mrs Kay surrounded by pupils wanting her attention whereas Mr. Briggs speaks sharply to them " Come on move!" .We find out early in the play that Mrs Kay is preferred rather than Mr Briggs when Reilly says in scene four 'You're Ace. Miss!' This is telling us that
Compare the characters of Mrs Kay and Mr Briggs from Willy Russell's "Our day out"
Compare the characters of Mrs Kay and Mr Briggs from Willy Russell's "Our day out" "Our day out" is a humorous play with a deep message written by Willy Russell. I think Russell uses humour in his play to reach a wider audience. The play is about a progress class from an inner city school in Liverpool. The progress class is a class for children with learning difficulties. The children take a trip to Conway in Wales; this is where most of the play takes place. Russell introduces two teachers with a different view on how to handle the class. One of the characters is Mrs Kay; she is the soft teacher who lets the children off with quite a lot. She seems to know every trick in the book and always knows what the children are up to. The other character Russell introduces is Mr Briggs, he is the strict teacher and until the end you don't see him crack a smile. Before Mr Briggs's character is really shown we realise what kind of person he might be. The reader realises this as the lollipop man calls him an "arrogant get" and all the children go from happy to unhappy as they realise he's coming on the trip. Russell's writing skills make the play humorous, serious and realistic. He also gives the reader a question as to which style of teaching you would prefer. We know that Mrs Kay and Mr Briggs have two different approaches towards the children. Mrs Kay acts like she's on the
Our Day Out - Analyse the cliff scene in detail showing how Russell uses dramatic impact to reveal character and convey his views
Analyse the cliff scene in detail showing how Russell uses dramatic impact to reveal character and convey his views The title of the play is 'Our Day Out' Willy Russell wrote it in 1977. He was born in Whinston Lancashire. He grew up in Knowsley; a model village set in the countryside outside Liverpool. Once Russell had qualified as a teacher he worked at Shortfields Comprehensive School in Liverpool where his experiences lead him directly into the writing of 'Our Day Out'. While it was written in 1977 its roots were firmly planted In Russell's experiences at Shorfields comprehensive. Clearly all the vital elements of Russell's play were implicit on the day trip for the remedial department at Shortfields. It has many fast moving scenes. Some humorous others even depressing. The story is quite powerful and get you thinking about many things. It was designed for television in 1977 and made into a musical in 1983; there would be many difficulties to put it onto stage. The problems would consist of Mr Briggs car approaching the zebra crossing, having a lot of children on the stage at once and having the buildings on the stage especially the school etc The play is set in Liverpool in a very run down area and extremely deprived, the behaviour and problems that the children have are very visible throughout the play. The play is about a progress class, which consists of children
“Our day out” by Willy Russell
Lynton Dell 10 AR 19TH October 2000 G.C.S.E Coursework Literature "Our Day Out" by Willy Russell Drama "Our day out" by Willy Russell is a twentieth century playwright about a group of liverpudlian school children who go on a school outing to Conwy in north Wales. Two of the main characters in this play are Mr.Briggs and Mrs.Kay. Mr.Briggs is a very authoritarian and strict teacher whereas on the other hand Mrs.Kay is a very laid back and relaxed teacher. Willy Russell creates a lot of dramatic impact and humour by the conflict, which occurs throughout the play between these two characters. Two key moments which best illustrates the conflict, humour and dramatic impact can be found at the café and the zoo during their day trip to Conwy in north Wales. The first key moment in which I have chosen to illustrate the conflict between these two main characters occurs at the café. Here we see Mr.Briggs and Mrs.Kay arguing about whether to supervise the children in the café. As the children depart from the coach Mr.Briggs shouts "Stop! Slater, walk! ...Walk! You boy.... Come here. Now stop. All of you stop." This is just one of the many sentences that show the way Mr.Briggs prefers to teach. Mr.Briggs behaviour and the way he talks to the children shows that he is a very strong disciplinarian. Mrs. Kay then goes on to say "Mr.Briggs.... As long as they don't go near
'Sparkleshark': How do the characters arrive on the roof and what do their entrances say about them?'
'How do the characters arrive on the roof and what do their entrances say about them?' The play 'Sparkleshark', by Phillip Ridley, is about a group of kids and the different relationships between them. During the play, the characters overcome their prejudices & stereotypes, and develop their identity as a group, ending up as friends. This shows that people can look past the stereotypes, and see people for who they really are. During this essay, I'm going to study closely the entrance of Jake & Natasha to explore their characters. The first character to arrive on the roof is Jake. We can tell that Jake is a bit of a 'geek' from the way that the stage directions describe the way he looks. He has the appearance of a stereotypical 'geek', 'his hair is neatly cut ', his uniform is 'neat & tidy', but his glasses with 'the left lens cracked and the bridge held together by sticky tape', makes us imagine a type of person who is probably picked on, and that's why his glasses are broken. When Jake enters the roof, he is 'clutching a satchel', which implies that rather than just carrying the bag, he is holding it very closely to himself, as if he is using it to hide behind. As he walks across the roof he is 'familiar & comfortable' with his surroundings, & the roof is described as his 'secret hideaway'. The audiences' presumption at these actions is that he likes, and is used to being
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
Family Day Out It was a hot summer's day in Florida and the Johnson family were on their way for a picnic on the beach
Family Day Out It was a hot summer's day in Florida and the Johnson family were on their way for a picnic on the beach. They were all sitting patiently in their small car. The car was red with a dent on the side that could only be seen when you were inspecting it from a close distance. The inside of the car was very musky as they were all sweating from the heat of the sun, shining down through the windows and bathing the passengers of the car. Mr Johnson was driving with much caution. He was wearing a cheap-looking shirt that Mrs Johnson had brought on sale from a local shop of hers. It was obvious that it was on sale as it had already started losing colour. At that moment in time he was wiping the salty sweat off his head with a white handkerchief that had his initials embodied onto it. Mrs Johnson was sitting in the passenger seat at the front of the car. She was a wearing a rancid green dress that would make anyone feel slightly nauseas at the sight of it. She had golden hair that was tied in ponytail with a pink ribbon. Her eyes were the colour of the sky on a cloudless day. She was on the phone at that time with someone from her office. Jennifer Johnson was sitting at the back clutching her Barbie doll in one hand and a carton of 'Yum Yum Orange Juice' in the other. She was wearing a t-shirt which had a picture of flowers embossed onto it and she had pink shorts on with
Essay on Bullying
Essay on Bullying Bullying can happen anywhere and to anyone, children, teenagers and even adults. Bullying comes in various forms of abuse such as physical abuse, which is when violence is used on the victim like kicking. It consists of actually causing bodily harm to the sufferer. Verbal abuse is another type of bullying when vicious threats and horrible words are used to hurt and taunt the victim, and then there is indirect bullying. This type of bullying is quite subtle; it consists of making snide and hurtful comments about the victim. Bullying can change or ruin a person's life. Kids can be mentally scarred if they are teased often; even worse, they could be killed or fatally injured if the bullying gets extreme. Bullying is destroying the lives and futures of many innocents, ruining them. Sufferers of bullying may end up physically distorted, paralysed, or dead because of bullying. Aside from physical harm, there is also mental harm. This is equally as destructive. Kids may become extremely depressed from being bullied. As a result, they may refuse to eat, become suicidal, or in return bully other kids to make them selves feel better. Commonly, there are incidents where bullied students go to school and kill and injure many people and eventually kill themselves. For example, once in a school, (Killarney Secondary School) they had an angered student come to their
“Our Day Out” is a political play. Willy Russell wants us to think about his characters and the world that they inhabit. What is your response to the drama, and the way it is told?
"Our Day Out" is a political play. Willy Russell wants us to think about his characters and the world that they inhabit. What is your response to the drama, and the way it is told? Set in a Liverpool of 1977, Willy Russell's play follows a rare school outing, in a dreary, dull and dilapidated environment. The situation is choked with deprivation and injustice, in a post-industrial and lifeless period in the city, in a working-class society. The local school is on its way to Conway Castle in Wales, the kids full of enthusiasm, anticipation and expectations of a 'New World.' The children are remedial, many unable to read or write, their hopes of a successful future, long forgotten, the system condemning them to a life of mediocrity. Their behaviour is unruly, although it is perhaps understandable given their situation and upbringing. One particular child, 'Andrews,' admits to the teacher Mr Briggs that he has been smoking since he was eight years old. When asked what his parents think about it, he replies, "Me mum says nott'n 'bout it but when me dad comes home, he belts me...'coz I won't give him one." The children are so low in the social status that when Linda, a girl who fancies Colin the teacher, suggests to her friends that she wants to marry him, they think that she is absurd, and would end up marrying someone like her father. There is no escape from the truth. I