Teechers Leavers 22 – The Albany Theatre, Coventry

Writer: John Godber

Director: Adrian McDougall

Nineteen Eighty-Seven – the year of a ruthless examination into the state of education in this country. This was the year John Godber’s iconic play Teechers engaged theatregoers with the critical questions around arts education, systematic pressures, and poverty. Over three decades later, the central themes to the play are still painfully relevant, but the cultural references are no longer.

Teechers Leavers ’22 has all the same powerful, political, and poignant messages layered deep within the school textbook, but there’s now a huge dose of recognisable references, including a compilation of as many TikTok songs and dances that you can think of. Following its debut in 2022, Blackeyed Theatre have taken this new hilarious and punchy play under its wing with a tour across the country to the delight of audiences young and old.

Whitewall Academy is on the brink and it’s not unique. The trials and tribulations at this school will be recognisable to teachers, young people and all those invested in the state system. This only adds to the humour and heartbreak that will be witnessed as director Adrian McDougall dramatises the events with excellent pace. This is a must with a trio of talented actors playing many different roles with impressive imagination.

The dance numbers – choreographed by Scott Jenkins – no doubt attract the attention of school children in attendance as they look for inspiration in planning their next TikTok’s. The engagement doesn’t start or end there though.

The trio of actors enter the auditorium with the typically boisterous attitude you would expect of three soon to be school leavers. This commands the attention of the audience immediately, in the same way everyone would frantically run to get a front row view of the school fight that always never seemed to impress. The difference here is that this play does impress, and Ciara Morris, Terenia Barlow, and Michael Ayiotis have talent in abundance. All of them interact well with the audience before charging towards the stage for the opening dance.

All three take on multiple roles but Ayiotis (Salty) and Morris (Gail) are hilarious in their roles as the rebellious school kids. This is best captured when the two of them are told to join the class in a circle, resulting in them physically showing their extreme reluctance as they melt to the floor quicker than an ice lolly in the Sahara Desert.

Barlow’s portrayal of Miss Nixon is significant in presenting the powerful messages that Godber and McDougall aim to get across. The marginalisation of her subject is accelerating as she looks on enviously at the local private school. Barlow shows raw emotion as she grows tired of justifying her mere existence as a drama teacher, but having won over the minds and hearts of many of her students, will she take the bait of the lucrative joys that private school seemingly offers, or continue to fight for what’s right at Whitewall Academy?

While many of the themes are still relevant today, more could have been made of the new emerging problems which were only covered lightly. Mental health and isolation following the pandemic could have been delved into more.

Teechers – Leavers ’22 is heart-breaking and hilarious in equal measure. Its poignant and political themes will leave you with a lot to think about, while simultaneously providing you with a laugh and a smile from ear to ear: the kind every drama lesson does in school.

Reviewed on: 25 May 2023