REVIEW: DREAM SCHOOL by Francis Grin at The Space 17 May – 3 June

‘This piece wears its good intentions on its sleeve’ ★★ ½

Dream School was inspired by a report of a group of students accidentally finding themselves in a cult, and playwright Francis Grin along with theatre company Mrs. C’s Collective have produced a complex and intriguing staging of that story at The Space on the Isle of Dogs.

During a drama workshop, one of the participants reveals that her hero is her dad, that he used to be in the Foreign Office and the SAS, and that he’s coming to stay with her in her student accommodation. When he gets out of prison… Before you can say Charlie Manson, there he is, living in a hall of residence, running his own drama workshops cum Reichian Therapy sessions, and well on the way to forming his own cult.

For a company that is very keen on trigger warnings and protecting audience members from re-living trauma, they seem to skate over a dramatic situation that rings more alarm bells than a fire-engine on callout. Even at my daffiest, I would not have gone within a mile of that man. As represented on stage by Justin Butcher, he is toxic masculinity turned up to eleven. Justin Butcher’s acting was awesome, but the character he represented was a repellent as a televangelist asking for money. Which is maybe the point – televangelists do persuade numpties to give them money. The problem with this play is that everyone is characterised as whip-smart but vulnerable, and the whip-smartness is not evident; telling the university authorities that there was a parent living in student accommodation would probably have fixed things. However, all the students get sucked into his cult, predictably get damaged by it, and then, some years later, get the chance to work through their traumas with the dodgiest, sleaziest journalist ever spawned. These are not perceptive people.

A somewhat ponderous examination of historic abuse and its after-effects, with two compelling performances from Justin Butcher and Charlie Cassen vigorously portraying the sort of men who should be avoided at all costs, and the rest of the cast floundering with characters who were barely defined or irredeemably wet.

This piece wears its good intentions on its sleeve, but the company should perhaps think about character and plot before worrying so much about their drama’s consequences. Plausibility is a useful convention.

Images: Rosalind Alcazar

BOX OFFICE https://space.org.uk/event/dream-school/

Reviewed by Chris Lilly