It’ll be anything but a fun night out, but should Education Secretary Michael Gove want an evening away from his red box, a trip to W12 is a must. The ever-enterprising Bush is using an ensemble of 11 actors to stage two hard-hitting new plays about our education system, of which The Knowledge by John Donnelly is the opening salvo.
It’s set in the kind of school we try to kid ourselves doesn’t exist, where lessons are less about learning and more about riot control. Into the fray of a citizenship class for a group of troubled 15-year-olds comes fragile Zoë (Joanne Froggatt, outstanding as housemaid Anna in Downton Abbey), a newly qualified teacher who is frightened she won’t pass her probationary year.
Ground down by the endless barrage of sexual innuendo to which she’s subjected in both classroom and staffroom, Zoë does something very stupid after a wretched staff Christmas party.
She’s obviously never read Notes On A Scandal.
Donnelly has worked in a number of schools himself and his script, directed with assurance by Charlotte Gwinner, fizzes with wry insider wit ("‘They’re insecure’. ‘Insecure? That’s Guardian reader for wanker, isn’t it?’"). There are some over-dramatic gear shifts and personality changes for a couple of characters towards the end but Froggatt is unremittingly fine as an emotional meltdown waiting to happen. Intriguingly, Zoë shares the same demeaning reliance on easy sex appeal as the girl-women she’s struggling to enlighten in her class.
There’s strong support from Andrew Woodall as pragmatic headmaster Harry and from the four actors playing the pupils who turn citizenship into lion taming. The walls of the auditorium are covered by blackboards scrawled with equations but that’s scant reflection of what goes on in this school. Battleformations would be more the thing here.
In rep until Feb 19. Information: 020 8743 5050. bushtheatre.co.uk
The Knowledge
The Bush Theatre
Goldhawk Road, Shepherd's Bush, W12 8QD
