The social and economic state of Liverpool in the 1970s was horrendous. Jobs went into decline and because factories were closings down, black market was developed because people could not afford the normal shop prices. Due to money shortages, people became depressed and turned to alcohol and violence. This meant their kids had even less money to live off and pretty much had to fend for themselves. The education system was failing the children and because factories were closing, they had no job once they had left school. So most children were trapped in Liverpool with no money, no job and no future.
There are three main characters in Our Day Out: Carol, Mr Briggs and Mrs Kay. They all represent an opinion. For example, Mrs Kay represents the opinion of Russell. Russell believes all teachers should be caring and understanding towards the children. Mrs Kay is like a mother figure to most of the children. It’s someone they can look up to and respect. She gives them comfort and support and even though hard times, takes them out to Wales for a good day out.
Mr Briggs is everything Russell is against. Briggs is cruel towards the children, and makes them feel beneath him by punishing them. Briggs thinks children need to be taught through discipline and unnecessary punishment. Russell is against this as the children have more things to worry about then learning how to stand in a straight line. These were hard times in Liverpool, and Briggs could only think about expectations and skills he benefited from.
Carol is the voice of the children. She shows us how they feel. Through carols character we can see they are vulnerable and helpless, no bright future and probably problems back at home. Carol shocks us when she is on the verge of suicide. It makes us feel sympathy and sorry for the children. they probably wont be able to live in them big houses Carol talks about with all the trees and plants right near the sea.
The day out is a very eventful one. At first there’s the bus journey. The children are all excited because most of them have never left Liverpool. Some children even said “Do we have to get a boat?” There’s smoking on the bus, bullying over seats, cheekiness towards the teachers but generally the children are in up beat moods. The bus makes a stop at a café. Mrs Kay lets the children enter the shop part alone. They go wild and steal lots of sweets and chocolate. The shop keepers call the children “thieving bastards.” But Russell has constructed the scene it in a humorous way so that we see the funny side and forgive the children.
The bus takes another journey to the zoo. The children really enjoy it and some are touched by the bear being trapped. It’s ironic that the bear is trapped because it mirrors the way the children are trapped and Liverpool is their cage. There is more humour as the children steal animals from the children’s farm. We, yet again, forgive them as the look of innocence in there eyes makes us feel sorry for them once more because they probably never been a zoo before.
At the castle the children run riot! They have never been so free. Mrs Kay just wants to give the children a good day out but Briggs thinks otherwise. He believes how the children are acting is unacceptable and the whole trip is an “ill organized affair” when infact the trip was organized to give the children freedom.
Mrs Kay decides to treat the children by taking them to the beach. Carol runs off to the cliff and this is where we really get to know her. She doesn’t want to leave Wales and considers jumping off the cliff because she doesn’t want to go back to Liverpool. During this scene we see a different side to Briggs. He listens to Carol and he makes us believe he does actually care. He gives her kind words of advice & helps her from doing something she would regret.
At the end of the play we are back in Liverpool. We see Briggs dispose of the film from a camera. This film contains pictures of him having fun and interacting with the children. This shows that nothing has changed and the day out has been pretty pointless. The children return back to the streets of Liverpool with nothing but memories of their day out.
By Danielle Jones
