Southside Players Amateur Dramatics Theatre Group

Our Day Out - February 2010

Written by Clare Phillips

February Production
Our Day Out by Willie Russell
directed by Emma Burford

Adults will be larking around as kids in Our Day Out by Willy Russell, the latest production from Southside, the award-winning drama group based in Balham.

Set in 1980s Liverpool, the action of this hilarious comedy by the author of Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine takes place on a school trip to North Wales.

Kindly teacher Mrs Kay is determined to show her remedial group – euphemistically called the ‘progress class’ – a fun day out in the countryside. The fly in the ointment is the authoritarian Mr Briggs, who doesn’t share Mrs Kay’s belief that the children will respond well to being treated with kindness and respect. “They’re just like town dogs let off the lead in the country,” is his opinion.

All the parts will be played by adults in this highly energetic and physical show. Director Emma Burford said: “This fast-moving comedy is loads of fun for both the audience and cast!”

Details
Wednesday 17 to Saturday 20 February 2010 7.45pm (Saturday 5pm)
Drama Studio Chestnut Grove School, Boundaries Road Balham SW12 8JZ
Tickets £10.00 (Concessions Wednesday & Saturday £6.00)
Box Office 07914 657 524 or online at www.southsideplayers.org.uk

Click HERE for rehearsal pictures.

More on the play

Our Day Out is partly a celebration of the highs and lows of growing up, being teenagers and free from school. But it also has darker and unexpected undercurrents about life in the Liverpool backstreets during the severe recession of the early 1980s.

Before his success as a playwright, Willy Russell was a teacher and called on his experiences of school trip – as a teacher and as a child – when writing the play.

Our Day Out has been compared to Willy Russell's later work, Blood Brothers in the way it portrays the fairly harsh realities of life for working-class children. But as with all Russell’s work, the story is told with wit, pace and humour.

Our Day Out was later developed into a musical, but Southside will be performing the non-musical version.