School Play

Synopsis

Fifteen year-old Charlie is determined to make her mark, but how? Lead a gang? Ride a motorbike? Or take piano lessons? School Play is a fast, funny play about potential - and wasting it.

Our Review:

25 June 2001

Oh, that staple of the traditional school hall. No, not a gleaming bank of hi-tech slumping software, but an upright piano. Dusty and slightly off-key maybe, but quintessentially bound up in the English secondary school like sausage and chips. And it's a piano, indeed, that remains central to the proceedings in Suzy Almond's enthralling first major outing, School Play.

The second offering from Soho Theatre's Writers' Attachment Programme, this drama introduces a cast of three unknown young faces plus Tracy-Ann Oberman as the emancipated music teacher Miss Fry. The all too real bravado of freaking out supply teachers greets us early on as the three youngsters vie for control of their domain. Sex as a weapon is never far from proceedings either, with Brooke Kinsella grittily alluring as troubled teen Charlie Silver.

Special mention early on must also go to Bryan Dick as the much put-upon Paul. His every involuntary shoulder shrug and frail attitudes rev...

Read more of the review

Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com - 27 June 2001:

What? Only 4 stars? I've never seen so many people on the edge of their collective seats. For a first time work this is simply tops - a real rollercoaster ride with an unknown cast....

Read more and add your own review