Our Day Out – review

This play is set in Liverpool and its about a progress class which is taught by Mrs Kay and who is planning to take her progress class on a trip to Wales and because of all the hard they been doing in the class and it will be good experience for the pupils as well and after planning the trip she tells her class that they are going a trip to Wales the pupils in the class are overjoyed about them going on a trip to Wales. The next day the class arrives in school in the morning and waits for the bus to arrive the bus arrives everyone gets in the bus.

Mrs Kay gets in the bus and when it’s about to leave the school Mr Briggs is sent on the trip at the last minute by the head teacher making the trip a disaster.Mr Briggs is concerned about the trip which he has not part in organisation should be an educational experience for the pupils and it is appalled both by Mrs Kay in her handling the pupils and when they reach Wales they stop at 4 different places 1st at the shop,2nd at the zoo,3rd at the Conway castle and finally at the beach.

At the core lies contrast between Mrs Kay and Mr Briggs and there respective education philosophies.MrsKay is a relaxed and easy going person where as Mr Briggs is a very strict and a man arable person This also shows the clashes between the two characters and in which each makes it clear what they think of each other and their values. These characters are deliberately made opposite to each other to make the play interesting and it hasn’t done anything to make them change.

This play was written in and 1977 by Willy Russell and his experience at shore field Comprehensive School where he taught from 1973-4 .in that year he accompanied the teachers of remedial department Mrs Dorothy king on trip to Conway castle and zoo in her care and in a last minute a head teacher joined in the party creating a recipe for disaster .during the course of the day head relaxed and enjoyed himself only to revert to his usual self at the end of the day in doing so, he destroyed all the positive achievements of the day out. Clearly all the vital element of Russell play was implicit in his day out. In writing the play Russell doesn’t even simply tell the story of what happened. He presented a similar characters and a situation familiar to his audience.

Main events

Sweet Shop

In Wales they sweet stop at shop and Mrs Kay let the pupils go out so they can stretch there legs for few minutes and take fresh air and then the pupils go into the to buy things for eating and Mr Briggs is worried that the pupils might try to steal things from the shop like chocolates from the road side caf� and Mrs Kay is relaxing and not worried about the kids.

Zoo

Mrs Kay decides to take the children to the zoo they arrive at the zoo and Mr Briggs tell the pupils to behave when they go in the zoo.mr Briggs separate the pupils in groups so they don’t get lost.Mr Briggs and mrs Kay the children inside zoo to show them the animals and the kids wonder around the zoo pulling faces at the animals. After a while Mrs Kay tell Mr Briggs that she is going to the coffee and she asks Mr Briggs to join him for coffee and Mr Briggs don’t trust the kids because they might try to steal something.mr Briggs tell the kids that they are going for a coffee and tell to behave when they are gone.

After the teachers are gone they pupils start to mess about in the zoo. They children starts to steal birds’ rabbits and many other animals from the zoo after stealing animal’s they went in to the with animals Mrs Kay and mrs Briggs return from the cafe .Mr Briggs is impressed with the children behaviour. Zoo keeper is shocked when there are no animals in the cages he runs to the school coach claming that they have stolen the animals which are missing from the zoo that leads to children been searched but the children decides to let go of the animals from under there clothes Mr Briggs is shocked and upset in which the children have behave. Mr Briggs apologies to the zoo keeper for what the pupils have done and Mr Briggs goes

“I trusted you and this is how you repay me. I trusted you all its obvious that trust is something you know notin about”

Conway castle

They went to Conway castle and Mr Briggs told them to stand behind him. And the pupils asked question and leads them along the passage showing them around the castle.Mr Briggs is furious about the kids and goes to Mr Kay telling her that the trip has been a shamble and look what they did at the zoo and look at them know running shouting and laughing and pulling each other.Mr Briggs is telling mrs Kay that she should do something about kids not just sit and look at them fouling around she should tell them to stop instead of taking there side.Mrs Kay loses his temper telling Mr Briggs what shell we teach them they are just little kids.

Beach scene

In this scene Carol is standing on a cliff and she thinking of not leaving this place because this place is better then her industrial home place. But is not going to happen because Mr Briggs find her and tell her to come down from the cliff edge but she is not listing to the word that Mr Briggs has been saying to her.Mr Briggs tries to get her off the cliff edge but first she warns him not to come close or she will jump off but in the end Mr Briggs persuade her to come off and Mr Briggs tells her that he want mention anything that has happened here when they get back to school.

The beach scene

In this scene the pupils wants to have a swim but Mrs Kay says no because as they don’t have any spare sets of clothes to wear and there are not a lot teachers to look after them. But Kevin wants to go for a swim but Mrs Kay keep saying no to him but he isn’t listing to Mrs Kay finally gives up and start to chase him in the water this makes the scene funny and humours and the audience finds it funny.meanwile Mr Briggs is setting apart from the rest of the group and this shows us that the man is aggornt ,stubborn and he doesn’t want to enjoy with the rest of the people. This shows the difference between Mr Briggs and Mrs Kay. This scene also tells us how motherly Mrs Kay is for example when Mrs Kay ducks Kevin head into the underwater and she carries him like a baby. This shows that she is treating them like her child.

The cliff Scene

This scene shows that carol is having a good time and she doesn’t want to leave. She loves it here, in the country side she sits on a cliff edge looking at the beautiful countryside. She doesn’t want to go back to her house because the countryside is better there is a lot of greenery and trees and good atmosphere where as her house is in industrial area with black clouds and no tress in her sight. But this is not to be happen and Mr Briggs finds her on the cliff and carol goes to her

“Don’t you come near me”

This remark hits and Mr Briggs with impact and he is stopped in his tracks.

“Mr Briggs starts to move towards her and she takes a step towards

the cliff”

The tension is building at this point for the audience and the audience is feeling the suspense between the two characters.Mr Briggs is telling Carol to move away from the cliff but she is not listing to her and she threat’s Mr Briggs that if he comes near her she will jump off the cliff Mr Briggs slowly walks towards her but when see that his approach is not getting through her he tries a nicer approach in order to succeed.Mr Briggs changes his attitude towards her mr Briggs goes

“If l didn’t care for you l would not be standing here

talking to you”

This shows us that Mr Briggs has changed her attitude from being strict and stubborn to a kind and polite person. Carol changes her attitude towards Mr Briggs this shows that carol has respect for his teacher and at the end Mr Briggs finally persuade carol to come down from the cliff and he promises that this conversation will not be mentioned when they get back to school.

Conclusion

What makes the scene more effective?

I think the tension and the Suspense contributes to the effectiveness of both scenes and l think the audience enjoyed seeing Carol standing up his arrogant teacher and l also think that audience was touched by Mrs Kay behaviour towards the children on the beach treating them like her own kids.