The Lesson

Much like the government ads that proclaim kids are positively gagging to be taught pretty much anything, as you watch the professor (John Eastman) begin The Lesson, you get the nagging feeling that something just isn’t quite right. It certainly isn’t - but while the simple logic of subtraction is lost upon the otherwise prodigious student (Amy Loughton) no matter how much he tries to explain, our interest is multiplied by the ironic commentary on pedagogy, in addition to remarks on the stability of knowledge itself, equating with an enjoyable and thought provoking - if not bemusing - evening.

“You can never be sure of anything” scrawls the professor over the blackboard, and while we’re all amused at the absurdity of 1+1 and 4-3, when he turns to philology you’re not sure whether Ionesco is mocking the pretentious or the low-brow with a sprinkling of references that only the linguists will get, and worst of all, you’ll still laugh, due to the jolly and brooding pace. Soon enough, the chemistry between the two characters begins to fizzle into something more than a professional relationship - slightly disconcerting as we’re not quite sure how old she’s supposed to be – boundaries are breached and the utility of force is brought into disrepute. Again, we are lead to question the authority of knowledge.

Faced with the question of authority (or rather, lack of) today’s teachers might well take a warming to the professor’s methods but in the original play the finger was actually pointing at Nazi oppression. Icarus have given this a new twist, and it won’t take a Oxbridge graduate to guess which ‘oppressive regime’ has replaced the Nazis. It seems clever; fitting, but a little stale in the face of all the other plays that cover this topic, and right from the start, rather than a bit seemingly tacked-on at the end. This is nitpicking, but otherwise I would have been forced to give the production a top rating. As it stands, with excellent leads, well directed sound and a clever set, you cannot fail to be entertained - not to mention baffled and left a tad pensive – quite simply meaning you’ve just experienced good theatre. It’s not rocket science – don’t be absurd, I’m telling you, that’s how it works! ****

Alan Francois

Reviews

BritishTheatre.com

The Lesson is currently on tour- click the link below to find out more.

http://www.icarustheatre.co.uk/lesson.html