Theatre review: The Cane

It's Christmas at the Royal Court, which is like Christmas anywhere else except the word "cunt" features a lot more prominently than in most seasonal fare. Also there's nothing remotely Christmassy about it, as Mark Ravenhill creates what could be a twisted flipside to The Browning Version. Here too a teacher is about to retire, but unlike Rattigan's protagonist Edward (Alun Armstrong,) who's taught at the same school for 45 years, many of them as Deputy Head, has been generally well-liked by the students and staff, at least as far as he's aware. But with a week to go until his retirement, Edward's estranged daughter Anna (Nicola Walker) returns to her parents' home, to try and forge some kind of relationship between her children and their grandparents; only to find it under siege by hundreds of angry children.

Edward and his wife Maureen claim to have no idea what's turned everyone against him, but having been in the job so long means he started at a time when the law, and public opinion about how best to discipline children, were very different, and the fact that the play's called The Cane means there's little mystery about what the revelation will be.

Indeed, in his early days as Deputy Head Edward caned hundreds of boys, and Ravenhill's play explores a very modern phenomenon of past sins being dug up and judged by today's very different standards. But it's also a drama about a seemingly average family with a spectacular amount of damage and resentment. The rift between them is supposedly because the parents, who've worked in the state school system all their lives, feel betrayed by the daughter working for an Academy. But there's clearly much more deep-seated issues here and within minutes of the play starting it becomes apparent that Maggie Steed's Maureen outright hates Anna.

Vicky Featherstone's production keeps the performances naturalistic, leaving the surreal touches to Chloe Lamford's set, a suburban home whose proportions are all out of whack, whose rotting stairs reflect the relationships within it, and which hasn't been decorated in so long there's still marks on the wall from when Anna went on the rampage with an axe as a child. There's a great trio of performances which are the highlight of The Cane, in characters it's hard to like - Edward is a bully and Maureen turns a lifetime of bitterness out on others, but they're also the ones who seem to genuinely care about and understand what diversity in schools actually means. Walker has a wonderfully warm quality as an actor which is here used to disarming effect, Anna's calm and measured tones on best practice in schools having a chilling undertone as she describes her Academy's sole purpose being "preparing children for the world of work" and the robotic children forged by its "eyes forward" policy.

The story itself is often frustrating - much is made of the mystery of how the children found out about the caning when Edward has all the evidence hidden away, but no solution is ever offered; I kept expecting the revelation that Anna had in some way exposed the secret but this is never really even hinted at. And however resolute Edward and Maureen might be about not calling the police, unless their house stands alone miles away from civilisation someone's going to call them once there's 200 kids throwing bricks. I also found the rushed-feeling ending disappointing, but there's a lot to enjoy along the way, not least in the performances.

The Cane by Mark Ravenhill is booking until the 26th of January at the Royal Court's Jerwood Theatre Downstairs.

Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes straight through.

Photo credit: Johan Persson.