Thought provoking new writing at the ever-reliable Bush Theatre.
Playwright Steve Waters' well-crafted response to the governments' free schools initiative follows a group of parents as they put their efforts into creating a school for their children to enjoy, not just survive. Not overly cynical, and tinged with a sense of compassion towards well-meaning mums and dads, Waters' Little Platoons, currently at Bush Theatre, shows where his talents lie – in creating cleverly carved characters and revealing them to us layer by layer.
In this socio-political exploration that doubles as a family drama, the story begins and ends with music teacher Rachel DeWitt, whose ex wants to move their son, Sam, to a predominantly middle class school in Bicester. Currently enrolled in the diverse, struggling metropolitan school where lefty Rachel teaches, Sam reads Tolkein with his dad and plays the violin with his mum, who feels, like most parents, that she isn't doing enough for her kid. Firmly against the idea of moving him to Bicester, she questions whether his current schooling, for all its multiculturalism, is really for the best.
What ensues is a debate about the place of "middle class values" in largely working class schools. Waters creates a provocative discussion that struggles, as it should, to be politically correct and goes back and forth with no conclusion but provides endless food for thought. For this reason Little Platoons could turn out to be one of the most important plays of the year.
His characters are varied and believable. They push, question and expose each other. Occasionally they stumble way over the line and have to reign each other back in. Rachel soon meets Neil and Lara who are setting up their own free school though they don't have a clear ethos. Oxbridge-educated, with a daughter called Hepzibah, Neil and Lara have the education and the "values" but lack the money to send their kids to private school, and do they really want to?
With witty, unapologetic characters like the uptight government official who offers advice on how to check those boxes and get that funding, and Parvez, who wants a school that won't belittle his children's ambitions, Waters gets at the crux of the problem. When the parents who can tick all boxes do get their free schools, aren't those schools going to be elitist and divisive too?
Go see Little Platoons for something to think about. And definitely go see it for the outstanding Claire Price whose portrayal of idealist, naïve and thoroughly compassionate Rachel will tug at the heart strings of audience members who don't give two hoots about the kids.
Little Platoons runs at Bush Theatre until 19th February
Photo credit Geraint Lewis
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