Comedy in Our Day Out by Willy Russell

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Comedy in Our Day Out by Russell

In this assignment I am going to look at the ways in which Willy

Russell has created humour within the play 'Our Day Out'. I will pay

particular attention to the characters, their dialogue and the events

that take place

Willy Russell was born in a town near Liverpool, he left school at

fifteen with no idea what he wanted to do and nothing but an O'level

in English. 'Our Day Out', 'Blood Brothers' and 'Educating Rita' are a

reflection of Russell's own experience of education. At the age of

twenty Russell decided to resume his education, he enrolled as a

mature student at Liverpool's Childwall college as a mature student

While studying he saw a play called 'Unruly Elements' by John McGrath

and decided to become a playwright. His first successful play was

called 'John, Paul, George, Ringo and…Bert' It was a musical about the

Beatles and was performed at the Liverpool Everyman Theatre. He wrote

'Our Day Out' during the seventies.

'Our Day Out' is set in an inner-city comprehensive school whose

catchment area is deprived and where there are many poor or single

parent families with high unemployment and few opportunities for young

people leaving school, 'Our Day Out' focuses on the "Progress Class's"

day out. Even in that area they are underachievers, have low reading

ages, poor academic abilities and little chance of passing any

examinations. Willy Russell uses this to deal with a range of issues,

such as the failure of schools to develop pupils, and the inequality

of opportunity. Russell's comedy is effective in doing this as it is

showing an amusing story instead of lecturing the audience.

Traditional comedy entertains and ends happily, however "Our Day Out"

has emotion, realism and the end is not a happy one for all the

characters.

When Mrs Kay's 'Progress Class' are unleashed for a day's coach trip

to Conway Castle in Wales, it is an celebration of the joys and

agonies of growing up and being footloose, fourteen and free from

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