The Cheltenham Everyman Studio has developed a policy of providing an alternative to the main-house pantomime – though why anybody would want an alternative to Tweedy and William Elliott I cannot imagine.
Over the past five or six years creative director Paul Milton has come up with some well-chosen plays – last year’s Educating Rita being particularly successful. This year he has chosen John Godber’s excellent Teechers.
Because of the limitations in the Everyman Studio, a play with a small cast is essential and Teechers is the ideal piece not only for that reason but, more importantly, because it gives the opportunity for three young actors to exploit and demonstrate their talents.
Written in 1984 and first performed by the Hull Truck Theatre Company and then at the 1987 Edinburgh Festival, Godber’s piece uses the well-tried and tested format of a play within a play. Three dead-end kids, Salty, Hobby and Gail, are just about to leave their dead-end school and they mount a performance for the benefit of their drama teacher in the school hall/gymnasium. The three youngsters take on twenty-odd characters including teachers and other pupils but what’s nice is that they all chop and change, often taking it in turns to play the same character – the one false nose fits all.I liked the way they announced who they were, rather like in Under Milk Wood.
The three young actors all excelled. The two girls, Elise Heaven and Tilly Steele, were both self-assured and I liked Elise’s grotesque head teacher Mrs Hudson and mealy-minded Mr Derek Basford. Although Tilly must be at least 23 or 24 she looked so young I wondered if her mother knew she was out and if there was a chaperone waiting patiently in the wings.
Charlie Ryan was suitably snotty as his actual character, Salty, but confidently showed his versatility by being equally convincing in “the play” as the school bully, Oggy Moxon, and as the idealistic, bespectacled drama teacher, Mr Nixon.
Teechers is a well-crafted, well observed and, you could say, political comedy that knows where it’s coming from. There are several underlying messages and occasionally an overt tirade about equality and opportunity but the general consensus is that everybody would be much happier and more fulfilled at Saint Georges, the posh school on the other side of town. Paul Milton’s direction was tight and to the point and had some nice touches. Very enjoyable and recommended. ★★★★☆ Michael Hasted 9th December 2015
