As we found the Peach Theatre Company production so good when we saw the first preview, we decided to go to see it again. Good choice; good use of this week’s entertainment budget.

Once again the performance was fantastic. The ensemble has really hit its stride and it was good to see that it has continued to develop, with some small changes incorporated since we first saw it a week or so ago. The marvellous acting, fantastic piano pieces performed so well by talented cast members and the beautiful singing by Posner (Matthew Backer) and the final song “Bye Bye Blackbird” which is gloriously harmonised, made this a production that was wonderfully enjoyable.

Our second visit gave us more opportunities to reflect on the cast and the interactions between the characters and to further consider what makes this production special.

The audience enters and the boys are already onstage in a study hall scenario with Lockwood (Caleb Alloway) playing the piano while the other boys variously do the sorts of things a teacher would expect to find in this sort of session. Some are studying, some are fidgeting and some are daydreaming. Having taught in a boys’ school in the past this scene triggered memories boys I knew years ago. This is a scene that is familiar to most teachers. It was so easy to relate to this group of intelligent students as I have taught each type we see in this play and the young actors depicted them so well and so realistically.

So who are these boys and who are the talented actors who portray them so well?

Firstly there is Dakin (Lindsay Farris). Dakin’s intelligence is apparent. He is an obvious leader and is not above using his physical appeal to his advantage. Farris plays this part well, giving the character a swaggering cockiness in his manner but also a sense of uncertainty as Dakin tries to deal with his feelings towards Irwin.

Then there is Posner (Matthew Backer) , the young and innocent Jewish boy coming to terms with his homosexuality. who enjoys singing and poetry. Posner wishes he was one of the cool gang but never seems to quite fit in. Backer beautifully portrays this sensitive young man who is torn by his unrequited love for Dakin. The haunting beauty of the songs Backer sings is further evidence of this young man’s great talent.

Scripps, who fills the role of sometime narrator, is a devout Christian, an aspiring writer, and sometimes the voice of reason for the boys. Aaron Tsindos plays this character with conviction and makes Scripps one of the most likeable characters in the play.

At first Rudge (Gary Brun) seems to be an empty-headed jock, but he’s gotten as far as the other boys in that he has achieved his A-levels and he knows how to work the system as well as anyone. Brun is convincing as the boy from a working class background who knows his weaknesses and plays to his strengths.

James Elliot’s Akthar is an intelligent onlooker who finds humour in his classmates antics and makes suitably witty contributions when needed while at other times showing that he ‘knows his stuff’ and is able to contribute to the intellectual discussions of the class.

Lockwood (Caleb Alloway) shines as one of the talented pianists in the class. He is well-portrayed by Alloway plays the privileged student with style and panache. This young man’s skill on the piano is wonderful.

Crowther is that student to be found in every class, the one who acts and who wants to pursue a career in theatre. Simon Brook McLachlan plays this role well, not overly extroverted, but also not overly quiet. McLachlan has totally mastered the traits of this character.

Finally there Timms (Matt Hardie). He is the joker of the class and Hardie is excellent in depicting this larrikin. There is much joy to be had in watching Hardie, as Timms, take on the female roles in the roleplays and movie scene re-enactments. These provide some of the lighter more visually funny moments in a very funny play.

Enough said about this exceptional, talented group of young men. In any school there cannot be students without teachers and the actors playing the teachers are also excellent.

Firstly there is Hector (John Woods). Woods plays this character as the playwright Alan Bennett must have meant him to be played. He embraces the passion Hector shows because he wants the boys to learn about music, movies, literature and life—things he believes to be more important than facts and figures. His classes pursue the beauty of knowledge,
which is not all that helpful when exam time comes. There are scenes where Woods is appropriately flamboyant, emotional, passionate and inspiring. There are also scenes where he shows the pathos of an aging teacher who has weaknesses that may lead to the end of his career.

Mrs Linnott, known by the boys as Tottie, is brilliantly played by Heather Mitchell. Linnott is a traditional ‘by the book’ history teacher who has brought the boys to success in their ‘A-levels’ only to be told by the Headmaster that they need more than she can provide to achieve success in the scholarship examinations. Mitchell is fantastic at depicting the frustration Tottie feels in the face of a male-centric school and field of study. She portrays Tottie as a caring teacher who is concerned about the future of her boys but is also sensitive to the foibles of her colleagues. Tottie has some of the best lines of the play and Mitchell delivers them beautifully.

Everyone has, at sometime in their life, known a school principal who is pompously over-concerned with image and with league tables and thus loses sight of the person behind the good grades. Paul Goddard creates a Headmaster who is exactly like this but who is able to carry off using bad language for emphasis in a way that seems natural, though one would normally expect this to be unacceptable in a public school Headmaster. I loved the way Goddard was able to portray the worst this type of headmaster with conviction and forcefulness.

Young teachers often have difficulty knowing where the boundaries are when dealing with their students and this is certainly the case with James Mackay’s Irwin. He plays the teacher struggling with his attraction to the charismatic Dakin with grace and finesse. He also portrays with expertise the hard taskmaster pushing the boys to challenge the party line and look for the argument that will give them an edge over all the other examination candidates

Certainly, all the talent in the world would not make a play a good production if the script is bad or the direction is poor. Fortunately for this talented group of actors, Alan Bennett’s play is excellent, with witty dialogue that ensures that the story flows well. Jesse Peach’s direction has taken the words from the printed page, put it into the mouths of the talented casts and provided a production that is extremely outstanding.

So, of this great dialogue, what did I find most noteworthy? In a play so full of wonderful dialogue it is hard to choose but the following are some of my favourite lines:

Rudge: How do I define history? It’s just one fucking thing after another.

Tottie: One of the hardest things for boys to learn is that a teacher is human. One of the hardest things for a teacher to learn is not to try and tell them.

Tottie: History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. What is history? History is women following behind with the bucket.

Irwin: Why do we not care to acknowledge them? The cattle, the body count. We still don’t like to admit the war was even partly our fault because so many of our people died. A photograph on every mantlepiece. And all this mourning has veiled the truth. It’s not so much lest we forget, as lest we remember. Because you should realise the Cenotaph and the Last Post and all that stuff is concerned, there’s no better way of forgetting something than by commemorating it.

Posner: All the effort went into getting there and then I had nothing left. I thought I’d got somewhere, then I found I had to go on.

Dakin: It’s subjunctive history. You know, the subjunctive? The mood used when something may or may not have happened. When it is imagined.

Timms: I don’t always understand poetry!
Hector: You don’t always understand it? Timms, I never understand it. But learn it now, know it now and you will understand it… whenever.

Posner: I’m Jewish, I’m small, I’m homosexual, I live in Sheffield…..I’m fucked.

[Dakin is annoyed because he thinks Irwin doesn’t like him]
Posner: But he doesn’t understand, Irwin DOES like him. He seldom looks at anyone else.
Scripps: How do you know?
Posner: Because nor do I. Our eyes meet looking at Dakin.