Cast: Kieran Cunningham, Pauline Daniels, Stephen Fletcher, Mark Moraghan, Georgina White, Sophie Fraser, Chris Mason, Abby Mavers, Jack Rigby. Mia Molloy.

We have all been on one, no matter of our age. The school day out is one of those times that if pushed we will remember detail for detail, whether it was a day trip to the local seaside to let off steam or an exercise in futility where the teachers tried to show that they could be down with the kids and be their friends for one day.

From the child who found everything boring, to the show off types, every pupil the audience could have remembered from their own days at school was accounted for and so well portrayed that The Royal Court would have been awash with memory and reminisce as the production of Our Day Out got another one of its much awaited airings.

There were so many wonderful touches to the performance, from Mark Moraghan’s portrayal of the slightly over eager disciplinarian to the sight of a pupil walking off stage with a condom machine underneath his arms that the audience hardly caught breath between the scenes, the fantastic dancing and musical numbers.

Amongst those playing the students are some that are surely headed for bright times including Abby Mavers as the love struck Carlene and Chris Mason as the boisterous but good hearted Reilly whose on stage presence and comic intuition worked well with both Abby and the object of his teenage desire, one of the teachers, Katie. The scene where she finally teaches him a lesson by dancing provocatively during the exquisite Beach Boy is a scream and had some in the audience remembering crushes they had at that young age.

Young Mia Molloy must also be mentioned as the seemingly broken Amy, her rough childhood laid bare for all to see and her moment with Mark Moraghan as she contemplated her life away from Liverpool was touching, sensitively acted and a pure delight.

The actors playing the authority figures must be congratulated for letting the younger cast take their deserved bow and the main bulk of the applause, for they truly earned every whistle, eager clap and call for more from a thrilled audience.

Any play that Willy Russell writes should be considered as compulsory attendance but none so more than Our Day Out, a play that re-writes the student/teacher dynamic with its well observed timing and its heartfelt desire to see show that everybody has demons within them and the capacity for change should you take it.

Ian D. Hall