Theatrical lecture Module
“CLASS ENEMY”
by Nigel Williams
“Class
Enemy” was written by Nigel Williams. It was first performed at the Theatre Upstairs on
In
this play there are six characters. All are round sixteen years old. They form a
group of young people and each other represents the variety of people in
schools, i.e., one is wearing glasses, another is foreign, etc. Iron is the leader
of the group, he is very aggressive as the writer
tells us in the beginning marginal notes. Sky-Light is on the other hand, only
he faces to Iron. Sweetheart is in charge of see if a teacher comes after teach his lesson. There are other characters, Racks, who
wears glasses, Nipper, who is punk and Snatch, who is a foreign. A teacher appear also.
A
group of adolescent classmates is waiting at the beginning of the play to a teacher, meanwhile
Iron decides that each other can show a lesson of a free topic. The rest of the
play tells us the different
lessons that they showed. For example Sweetheart teach about sex. The play ends with a confrontation between
Iron and Sky-Light.
The
space is unique, the classroom. It has its windows broken, the desks were in
floor, that it to say, a bust classroom. The classroom is in
The play is divided into two acts, but there
is not a time jump. The time is continuous. I think is the writer’s time.
A
very interesting point in this play is the language. The author shows us how
young people talk to each other. We can check during the whole play. For
example: “We finished ‘er Sky-Light.
Fuckin’ finished ‘er” (Iron, page 1), the same character: “S morning”. I think the author shows us
how young people talk and he writes as the same, that is to say, he writes the
dialogues as if the characters were talking. The street
language. The writer shows us how they speak through the play. In the
end of the play, some dialogues are in capital letters, I think it is for
increase the meaning of that that the characters says.
I
think that the writer wants to transmit us how is the life of young people of
his time, and of