The Knowledge

Image by Kathy Luu

High school teachers are people too. They swear, have sex, break rules. At least that’s what UK gent John Donnelly explores in his play “The Knowledge”.

 Written from experience, the dark comedy follows the life of high school teacher Zoe. Highlighting the repercussions that working in a shitty school is having on Zoe’s behaviour.

From banging the Head of Science to being called a slag, Zoe is finding it difficult to lead her students in the right direction when she can’t even get her own life sorted. The Knowledge director, Rebecca Martin, puts it pretty simply, “Teachers are just as much finding themselves and their identity through the students and vice versa.”

 The Knowledge is definitely a great snap shot of the reality that is the schooling system. Demonstrating the effects of funding and the positions that well-meaning teachers are put in. As Rebecca says, “Kids can be pricks, like real assholes!”

 The Australian premier of “The Knowledge” by pantsguys Productions is hitting New Theatre, Newtown, on October 10. The satire will have you seeing the reality of teachers, rather than how Rebecca, and pretty much everyone else, saw them in high school. “They weren’t real people! They were your teacher and that was it.”

Rachel x