Chalkface

When the roll is taken for Angela Betzien’s Chalkface, it is unsurprising that the author, Director Jess Arthur and most of the cast have one or two teachers in the family. Based on her deep understanding of teachers and teaching, Betzein’s play is a black comedy, chosen in part to underline the current crisis in education where relentless testing, burgeoning paperwork for every teacher, ruthless cut backs for resourcing and desperately underfunded lack of support puts both teachers and students who learn differently, and often with difficulty, under unimaginable pressure. Don’t turn off! Yes, this is a fast paced, frequently laugh out loud comedy.

Set in the fictional Australian primary school of West Vale that has a staffroom closely resembling the fallout post the Chernobyl meltdown, it is where we meet Pat Novitsky, a dedicated educator of 40+ years, played by seasoned performer Catherine Mc Clements. Pat is jaded and tired, as is the whole school. Much to her chagrin, she is forced to become the mentor for the newest staff member and to make matters worse, the most dreaded pupil at the school appears on her class list. Aptly named ‘A’ grade troublemaker, Hurricane Little is at the heart of much of the staff trauma. Whilst we don’t meet him, we hear an exhaustive list of his misdemeanours, all of which have a devastating impact on many of the staff. Fresh from her Neuroscience degree, Anna Park, played by WAAPA graduate Stephanie Somerville, oozes naivety and positivity and whilst she and Pat seem at first to be ‘poles apart’ adversaries, their shared passion for children and education is key in this play.

One of the joys of this play is that it is very physical as well as having lightning fast dialogue, so the audience is fully engaged with something happening the whole time. The play opens with little or no dialogue, allowing us all to fully see the appalling state of the staffroom, including a battle with a cockroach living in the only kettle, needed as the wall water heater is already out of order on the first day of term. The walls are dirty, peeling and ‘institutional beige’, the furniture is still there from the 1980’s, none of it matches as it looks rescued from the local tip, and the toilets are the sort that our mothers warned us ‘not to sit on the seats’.

The choice of Mc Clements as one of the two lead roles is inspired. Her grasp of sardonic dry humour is evident in every move, gesture, and planted throwaway line. Her dialogue is biting, witty and facetious. In one hour and 40 minutes she manages to introduce every terrible experience and memory in the life of a career teacher, yet never loses her humanity and palpable passion for her students and for being a teacher at the chalk face.

Somerville does an excellent job developing what seems to be an inexperienced, unworldly and overzealous beginning teacher into a young woman who is multi-faceted, determined and bound for teaching greatness. One of the delights is the scene where Pat and Anna are secreted in the forbidden, locked Stationery Cupboard, cleverly opened up, moved downstage and lit. Symbolically, they are constrained; in reality, it is a warm and significant turning point in the story.

Director Jess Arthur talks about needing to create a space for the actors to play, and play, they did.

Notable for her zany and beautifully timed humour is Susan Prior as Denise Hart, a lonely, profoundly psychologically damaged kindy music teacher. The price of admission is worth it to see her side-splitting, and indeed crotch clutching Braxton Hicks pre-birth performance. Her physical humour is both joyful and playful and she relishes and makes the most of Jess Dunn’s clever primary music instrument based soundscape.

Eight-year-old Hurricane has much to answer for, including aspiring ballet teacher come PE teacher Steve Budge. Played by Adelaide actor Ezra Juanta, resplendent in a pink tutu, we discover that courtesy of Hurricane, Steve is both mentally and physically damaged and desperate for a compensation payout.

Douglas Housten, the 40 something, bureaucratic, classroom avoiding Principal is a data driven, slogan spewing corporate man. Played by Nathan O’Keefe, he epitomises every teacher’s worst nightmare as a school leader. Housten is aided and abetted by failed banker, Office Manager, and aptly named Cheryl Filch. Played by Michelle Ny, she is the holder of the sacred Stationery Cupboard key, appointed user of the photocopier, deliverer of hysterical PA malapropism and keeper of some very sinister secrets. Ny’s timing and breadth of emotional swings allow her to create a totally believable incompetent, but strangely likeable administrator.

Mark Shelton’s creative lighting is used cleverly to ensure that the time and scenes flow seamlessly and keep the audience fully engaged, and this is a critical element in the pacing of this play. Set and Costume Designer Ailsa Paterson has literally hit every nail on the head and her costumes, particularly the subtly nuanced array for Book Week, are both a visual delight and significant contributor to each character’s story.

Chalkface enables us to walk away with a whole new respect for teachers (a catch cry resounding from the peak COVID lockdown days). It does so by exaggerating, and also incorporating, those staffroom chats that teachers use to let off steam and laugh. I strongly related to dialogue about students called Beyoncé and those with made up combined names (because their parents couldn’t choose) and was touched by the poignancy when Pat reveals that she ‘neglected her own kids’ because school had taken over her life. It is a joyous, frolicking new Australian play that importantly holds up a mirror and challenges us to glimpse at the lives of those who choose to shape the lives of our future leaders, families, workers, and dare I say, teachers.

Jude Hines

Photographer: Matt Byrne

Chalkface is a production from State Theatre Company South Australia and Sydney Theatre Company. It plays in Adelaide at Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre until Aug 20, Sydney at the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House, from Sep 15 – Oct 29,Riverside Theatre Nov 3-5 and Canberra Centre Nov 9-12.