Do3 - Skyvers

[Guest]

Although undoubtedly influential in its day, I kept wondering about the significance of this bleak portrayal of disaffected alienated school leavers. In a sense, with the addition of a few mobile phones and a bit of modern technology, it could have been written last week, and I don't suppose the narrative would have been much different. An interesting choice for Do3 though (just what is the target audience for this type of play?), and it was a well-played powerful production. It could have had a lot more impact if it had been transmitted on Radio 1 Extra.

Russ

[DracoM]

Much more interesting was the play's furious and contemptuous take on teachers, particularly the unspeakable HM. Wonder if that's changed at all these days?

[french frank]

An interesting choice for Do3 though (just what is the target audience for this type of play?), and it was a well-played powerful production. It could have had a lot more impact if it had been transmitted on Radio 1 Extra.

I presume it was Kwame Kwei-Armah's choice here, rather than the BBC's. I wonder what impact it would have had on a young audience? Especially a radio audience (is it patronising to speculate whether it could hold their interest for two hours?). And the reverse side: how much interest does it have for an adult audience?

It was certainly bleak and I found it just a bit unrelieved. There was the story strand of what would happen to Cragge - the idea that he was one who might make something of himself seemed to emerge rather slowly and it wasn't conveyed very strongly. The headmaster I found more of a tool who acted as he did at that moment in order bring about the desired conclusion, rather than being intended as an indictment of the teachers. But I may have got that wrong.

Performances very good, though I think it's quite difficult for even young actors to sound like 'young people' or 'yoof'. Even more difficult to write for them, I'd have thought.

[Russ]

Here's Lawrence Raw's review of Skyvers.

Russ

[french frank]

Here's Lawrence Raw's review of Skyvers.

Thanks, Russ - it's good to see a proper, full length review (is that the Laurence Raw who has just joined us? If so, come and say hello ). I'm still unpersuaded that the portrayals of the teachers give enough evidence that Reckord intended (or achieved) an indictment of the teaching profession. There were too few of them to judge. The head seemed atypical (I think by then comprehensives had already begun to voluntarily abandon corporal punishment, although it continued in private/public schools for much longer) and Freeman was not treated unsympathetically: he was weak/ineffectual but genuinely wanted to help where he could. Reckord may well have intended to show that the education system was letting the children down.

The pupils, on the other hand, did seem typical of kids in certain areas, and, sadly, now seem almost mild compared with the commonplace occurrences of violence in schools that goes well beyond bullying.

I can't find a lot about Barry Reckord. I wonder if he had direct experience of teaching? And I wonder why he was chosen by Kwame Kwei-Armah as being particularly influential to him, since not many of his plays seem to have been published and KK-A must have been quite young when they were first produced.

[aeolium]

I thought the dialogue was well-written and it was a good production. But I couldn't help thinking of the almost contemporary radio play Unman Wittering and Zigo by the great Giles Cooper. That was set in a different type of school - boarding rather than comprehensive - but was a pretty searing portrayal. I'd love to hear it again.

[Russ]

(is that the Laurence Raw who has just joined us?

Yes. We err, 'met' on twitter.

I'm still unpersuaded that the portrayals of the teachers give enough evidence that Reckord intended (or achieved) an indictment of the teaching profession.

I think Reckord want to give a portrayal of a 'shared brutality' between teachers and pupils.

I can't find a lot about Barry Reckord.

This bio seems useful.

Russ

[tony yyy]

I saw this play in about 1970 but didn't remember much about the plot at all, or even whether or not I liked it.

With one teacher being sympathetic and the headmaster not, I didn't think it particularly came across as an indictment of the teaching profession but more a study of hopelessness and low expectations. Some of it seemed rather dated, with corporal punishment, and the certainty of a mundane job in a factory. I don't know what the situation in such a school would be today. Has wider access to higher education made any difference? There's certainly less prospect of automatically getting a job.

[french frank]

There's certainly less prospect of automatically getting a job.

Indeed. Not even in a mundane job in a factory.

[Lateralthinking1]

The head seemed atypical (I think by then comprehensives had already begun to voluntarily abandon corporal punishment, although it continued in private/public schools for much longer)

I didn't listen to the production but have to comment on this point. I note that the original dates back to 1963. In 1974, the Headmaster of my junior school, which was in the then modern mode of teaching, was very much of the old school in terms of discipline. While not giving us lessons in practical basketwork - his subject - he frequently administered the slipper.

I went on to an Independent school which on occasions did the same. Had I not done so, it would have been a mixed comprehensive until the age of 14. There, in one of the most wealthy and educated parts of Britain, it was so free and easy that teenage bullies laid down the law. However, most of the time they didn't have to bother. All class members regularly spent time kicking footballs around and chucking pencils out of the windows. Thus far the story is almost predictable.

But the boys and girls were divided for 14 to 18. The boys' school that I would have attended then was legendary. So legendary in fact that it hit the national newspapers in 1977. The tabloids confirmed first hand accounts I had received from local friends. Here is that detail. It shows that corporal punishment was thriving in comprehensive schools during the punk era. Much changed in the sixties for better and worse but much didn't. This was an area of life where the feet of authority dragged before radical change.

http://www.corpun.com/purley.htm