Class
Bush Theatre, London

EXPLORING the interchanging relationships between two estranged working-class parents and their son’s well-intentioned teacher in a run-down Irish primary school, this carefully constructed three-hander — first seen at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre — is notable for some outstanding performances.

Stephen Jones masterfully portrays weekend dad Brian, dealing with a well of pent-up anger at his life. Forced back into the school to face the truth about his son’s educational problems, childhood resentment of authority soon resurfaces, while Sarah Morris gives a wonderfully nuanced performance as as his poorly educated wife Donna.  

Reverting to childhood subservience on returning to the school she used to attend, and in the face of her outspoken husband, she gradually comes into her own when forced to make a stand.