I am comparing the play; ‘Teechers’ by John Godber, to the play that I

I am comparing the play; ‘Teechers’ by John Godber, to the play that I

recently took part in and helped to write; ‘The Victim’. The plot of our

‘The Victim’ and ‘Teechers’

I am comparing the play; ‘Teechers’ by John Godber, to the play that I

recently took part in and helped to write; ‘The Victim’. The plot of

our play- ‘The Victim’- is based around bullying and domestic

violence. The main storyline is about a young schoolgirl called Jess

moving to a new area and a new school. She is singled out by the other

people at the school and a group of girls begin to bully her. Her home

life isn’t much better though- Jess’ mum is a schizophrenic and abuses

Jess both verbally and physically. Jess copes with the stress of it

all at first but then it starts to depress her and she thinks about

committing suicide. The bullies carry on tormenting Jess and a nasty

trick is the final straw. Jess goes home and tries to find comfort in

her mum who rejects her, this leads to Jess taking an overdose.

Although the plot of ‘Teechers’ is a lot different to the plot of ‘The

Victim’, the basic setting is quite similar: ‘Teechers’ is also set in

a school and modern day life. ‘Teechers’ vigorously evokes life at a

modern Comprehensive, using the format of an end-of-term play to

sketch a drama teacher’s progress through two terms of recalcitrant

classes, cynical colleagues and obstructive caretakers until he

departs for the safer waters of a private school. The play runs the

gamut of emotions, mostly humour, to portray the main themes of the

play. The play to an extent comments on the flaws of the education

system: the title it self is a political statement, instead of being

spelt 'teachers' its spelt ‘Teechers’, almost a comedic dig at the

'system' which has failed to teach the pupils correctly.

In our play the main themes are bullying, domestic violence and

isolation, but references are also made to suicide, mental illness and

fitting in. We used these issues because they are things that

teenagers in particular may experience and so the audience could maybe

relate to the play. By choosing to explore these issues we may also

raise awareness of things like bullying and domestic violence and help

people to understand the issues involved. Therefore by using these

themes we made the play more personal to the audience and more

emotional; therefore they may enjoy the play more and feel more

involved.

The themes of ‘Teechers’ are quite different to the themes stated