Our day out REASEARCH unit 6

 The play "  Our day out " was written by   Willy Russell  he was influence to write the play because  he  was once taught at a similar school and had been  that had been on very few school trips .  Our day out is an interesting play based upon a  school trip with a group of underachieving children . The play conveys a deeper message about life in areas like Liverpool for people in the late 1970s .  The playwright - Willy Russell skilfully created  a strict old fashioned , self character Mr Briggs  and throughout the play convinces us that he is transforming into a fun laid back person .

 For our performance Mr Briggs was played by Remal and was performed exactly how  he is described in the script .  He had to be very uptight throughout the hole play and punishing the kids every chance he got .Which annoyed them since as it was the only time they had gotten freedom .  This will make the audience focus on how Russell uses his character to help  the audience  understand the plight of the children in the progress class.   At the begging of the trip he uses Mr Briggs sharp term entrance onto  the coach to accentuate his personality as he suddenly barks at Reilly  sit down .     For  our performance  this was  done  throughout majority of the journey , we then also added an extra part were we had two students arguing over Justin Bieber . We have turn around furiously and tell them to be quiet , we also have him still lecturing the kids in the play ground .  We done this to give the audience a clear image that he is a stereotypical strict teacher .

The social and cultural background in "Our day out "Willy Russell has written many plays over the last thirty years, but there is one feature that is common to all of them: the issue of social and cultural background.  This is the situation of the characters :their surroundings  the society in which they are brought up  and the culture of that society .    It is this that can lead to behaviour , feelings opinions and general outlook  of the characters . Russell explores the effect that society and culture can have on people in all his plays , but in none it is so poignant as in" our day out ".

The story of what happens when Mrs Kay takes her progress class out  of inner city Liverpool on a school trip to Conway castle  , Wales . Throughout "Our day out " the issue of social and cultural background is ever -present but it is discussed and conveyed in many different forms : the colloquial  dialect Russel uses :the symbolism that is featured : the behaviour and attitudes of the children  the way that people react to these children and the insights we get into other family lives .