Our Day Out Coursework
Explore the ways in which Willy Russell uses comedy and pathos in “Our Day Out” to entertain or to influence his audience and make them consider social and educational issues of the time in which the play was set.
There are many ways in which Willy Russell uses comedy and pathos in “our day out” to entertain or to influence his audience and make them consider social and educational issues of the time in which the play was set. The social issues we are asked to consider include inner city deprivation, the future’s of less able children and the 1970’s economic recession. The main educational issue explored in the play is how to educate children like those in Mrs Kay’s progress class, whether to follow Mrs Kay’s liberal or Mr. Brigg’s traditional view.
The most immediately clear characteristic of the play is that it is humorous. One of the ways Willy Russell uses comedy through out the play is to use humorous incidents or scenes. In scene twenty-nine the children are leaving the zoo, just as the coach is about to leave the zoo keeper is forced to run out and stop the bus because the children have stolen all of the animals. The children had succeeded in smuggling the animals onto the bus without a member of staff realising, and this sudden appearance of the animals would also be surprising and amusing for the audience. The scene is also funny because of the reaction of Mr. Briggs. He shouts at the children saying “I trusted you”. This is ironic and funny because Mr. Briggs has been the only teacher who’s been suspicious of the children from the start and knew they were up to no good. This is an example of how Russell often creates comedy at the expense of Briggs. Another way in which Russell creates comedy is through character. The funniest character is probably Reilly who is a “typical teenage kid”, meaning he mainly speaks his mind etc. A good example of why he is amusing is the scene in which Reilly answers back to Colin, a member of staff, “I’ll show her the woods for y’ sir”. Reilly is talking about Colin’s girlfriend, who is also another member of staff. By saying this he knows he is annoying him and shows the audience how he speaks his mind. The way Reilly speaks is also typical of the kids in the play. Reilly speaks in a stereotypically “scouse” way when he says things such as “Ta, me old man, y’ and y’ve.” Also, Russell writes his script phonetically to make sure the actors speak in a scouse accent. The audience find this amusing because a scouse accent, to other people, may sound funny to start with and most people relate “scousers” to being ether thugs or funny. It is also important because there are issues to do with stereotyping in the play. Russell may be challenging his audience through their initial reactions to these kids and the way they speak.
