"Our Day Out". Describe a funny scene and a serious one and show how the playwright manages to affect the audience in different ways.

by kimberly123 (student)

Our day out: Describe a funny scene and a serious one and show how the play Wright manages to affect the audience in different ways?

Our day out was written by Willy Russell. Willy Russell was born in , on the outskirts, where he grew up. His parents worked in a book publisher's and often encouraged him to read. After leaving school with one in English, he first became a ladies' hairdresser and ran his own salon. Russell then undertook a variety of jobs, also writing songs which were performed in local folk clubs. He also contributed songs and sketches to local radio programmers’. At 20 years old, he returned to college, and later , and became a teacher in the Toxteth area of Liverpool. Around this time he met his wife, Annie, and became interested in writing drama. As he grew up in Liverpool and worked in various jobs there in his adult life, he knew what it was like. He expressed this culture of negativity in his writing, giving a ‘voice’ to these people, who he had affection for and understanding of.

The play 'Our Day Out' is about a group of under achieving kids, who go for a day out to Wales with two teachers. On one side we have the very strict male teacher Mr Briggs, who intends the kids to have a bright future and wants them to always learn. On the other hand we have a very soft hearted and Sympathetic teacher Mrs Kay, who knows that the children will not get very far in life, so they might as well enjoy themselves. This play tells a very important message about the different techniques of teaching the two teachers use.

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The two main teachers in the play are Mrs kays is lovely and caring, kind-hearted lady, and she cares deeply for the children the head teacher doesn't trust Mr kays because he wanted Briggs to go on the visit to keep discipline as he knows mrs kay allows the children do what there want as she wants the children to have fun but we also know that he also thinks that that she is a good teacher and in favour of the way she teachers because he says to Briggs '' Theres not many of her type y'know.'' were as Briggs is totally opposite he is strict, doesn't care about the children, always wants to be in control we know this because he says 'Linda Croxley! If you don't behave you will spend the remaining time of visiting Conway in the coach!'' this shows that he always wants to be in control and wants the children that he is strict and doesn't accept any bad behaviour he is also arrogant and also quite brutal
"Right, McNally, go and sit at the back." This shows that he is impatient and he is also rude, he is not polite to the children he expects the children to respect him but the message that he gives the children is that he hates them.

One of the funniest scenes takes place when the children go to the zoo. In this scene the children gain trust from Mr Briggs. The first device Willy Russell uses is in the stage directions at the star of the zoo scene are. “They point and shriek with horrified delight at the sexual organs of monkeys”. Russell uses this to show the children’s immaturity, aiming to emphasize the fact that the children haven’t previously been exposed or had this type of experience as they have never before left the inner cities and this is shown in their reaction. His choice of language “horrified delight” highlights the fact that the children are at first momentarily shocked and/or scared by this but then find it entertaining, this demonstrates that everything is new and strange to them. Although this is serious, it is also funny because of the language Willy Russell uses .At first in the zoo scene the children were with the teachers and acted as if they were interested in the animals, like for example ‘two girls link his arms’. This scene is particularly funny because when the children gain trust from the teachers and they go and leave to have a coffee break. The children start to steal the animals in the zoo. Also this scene is funny because of the language used as ‘two boys were abusing a bird’. Also they said that it was a ‘dislocated sparrow’, this is amusing because the two boys were actually abusing a sparrow. Another part funny part also in this scene is when the children take all the animals and the zoo keeper finds and says ok ‘they’re not bloody children’. ‘They’re animals’. ‘That is not a zoo out there’. This is funny because the zoo keeper plays o n words (pun) and when he says ‘This is the bloody zoo, in here’. This has double meaning, it can mean that the children are animals because they are causing trouble and it could also mean that they have all the animals.

However a totally different scene is when the children go to the beach and Carol gets lost, so Mr Briggs goes looking for her. This scene is very different because it makes the audience feel different emotions. The writer makes the audience feel tense, when the stage directions state that ‘carol, moves towards the edge of the cliff’ this makes us feel tense because it makes the audience nervous and scared that Carol might commit suicide . The audience would think this because she says ‘try and get me and I’ll jump over’. Also in the beginning of the scene Mr Briggs is indifferent to the children but starts to care when ‘carol lifts her hands to his. She slips’. This makes him care. As we see when ‘Mr Briggs wraps his arms around her ‘ as she had been threatening him and he was scared . At this point Mr Briggs realises that carol and the other children have major problems. Also the writer makes the scene more serious by the language the Carol uses ,she knows back in Liverpool ,it’s not nice as whales and that Mr Briggs doesn’t like them , when Carol says ,’I’m stopping here ... Whales’ , this shows that Carol is sure she wants to stay in Wales in search to have a better life . This makes the audience assume that there is something going on back home and that she had given up on life , Also we know this when the writer says ‘she is at peace ... a fleeting moment of tranquillity’ .

I think that Willy Russell manages to affect t the audience in different ways because of his humours language, which have serious messages behind it. For example, When Russell compares a trapped bear with the children. “…It was born in captivity so it won’t know any other sort of life… it’s in them t’kill you…”
Here, Russell uses the imprisoned bear as a device; it is symbolic of the children’s situation. The children are “trapped” just as the bear is trapped in its pit. I think this is particularly successful here because it also reflects the way that when it gets out “it’s bound to be mad an’ wanna kill people”. Likewise, when the children “escape” from the city centre they cause havoc running about uncontrollably like wild animals. Also because I think that the Writer is effective in making the audience feel sympathy for the children.