28th April 2016
Review: Our Day Out
Curve
A Curve & De Montfort University co-production
Lyrics by Willy Russell
Directed by Julia Thomas
Our rating: ***
A musical written by Willy Russell in 1977.
A delightful entertainment that brought the vitality of youth to the studio of Curve.
Tonight’s show brought together the huge artistic skills of Curve with the energy and enthusiasm of the students of DMU in what was the sixth annual co-production marking the established collaboration between Leicester’s flagship theatre and one of the city’s two internationally renown Universities. Tonight cast included first, second and final years students from DMU.
The story is set in a Leicester school. Teacher Mrs Kay’s take her ‘Progress Class’ (teenagers who have been excluded from mainstream classes) on a coach trip to Skegness. Deputy Head, Mr Briggs, joins them on the coach. Their destination is the castle at Lincoln but along the way they make various stops – at the café, the zoo, the beach and the funfair. The trip proves to be a succession of problems for the teaching stuff. At the cafe they steal all the sweets; at the zoo they try to steal the animals. At the seaside, one of the teenagers threatens to jump off a cliff. They get back to Leicester having had a marvellous day out but the trip opened up tensions within the teaching staff and laid bare the difficult lives that the group of disadvantaged children faced both at home and at school. Two of the girls in the group perform a routine several times in which they reprise what they feel about the whole thing: It’s boring. For teacher Mrs Kay it is a chance for the kids to get an experience they otherwise would never get; for Deputy Head, Mr Briggs the errant group represents a constant threat as he constantly shouts at them to behave themselves. Like Blood Brothers the show highlights the lot of working class youth, its bleakness and hopelessness and the irrelevance of education to their lives. It does however have moments of poignancy and tenderness as well as flashes of humour that lighten the gloom. Willy Russell used to be a teacher and so had experiences of field trips. Russell is best-known for Educating Rita, Shirley Valentine, Blood Brothers and Our Day Out went to on become a firm favourite with audiences and with youth theatre groups.
The cast did an excellent job, singing, dancing and acting with real commitment and enthusiasm. It was interesting that the plot has been transposed to Leicester from its original setting in Liverpool and the stage set was decidedly simple. The young cast brought the production to life and gave a vibrant performance that captivated the audience.
Our Day Out runs at Curve from 28th to 30th April 2016.