THE KNOWLEDGE

by John Donnelly

The Schools Season at the Bush

In response to one of the most urgent and divisive issues of our times, the Bush presents The Schools Season: The Knowledge by John Donnelly and Little Platoons by Steve Waters. The season will bring together an ensemble company of ten actors and a series of talks, debates and events which will examine education in Britain today. NB: These two productions will run in rep with each other. Please check here for times and dates for Little Platoons and here for the full programme of education events.

The Knowledge by John Donnelly

Being a teacher means weekends.It means thirteen weeks holiday. It means a secure job in uncertain times

But Zoe doesn’t want to have to rescue her students.
She doesn’t want to be called a slag.
She doesn’t want to sleep with the Head of Science.
And she doesn’t want to teach a group of kids how to do life.
Because that’s something Zoe’s not sure she knows how to do herself.

John Donnelly’s searing new play examines what happens when a young teacher goes off the rails in a failing school. Shocking, revealing and darkly funny, the writer draws on his own experience working in schools.

John Donnelly has worked in various primary and secondary schools across London, Essex and Kent, including programmes aimed at curriculum development, Irish and Romany Travellers, enterprise, literacy, sex education, addictions, student voice. His previous plays include Bone (Royal Court Theatre), Poll Tax Riots (Hampstead Theatre) and Songs of Grace and Redemption (Theatre 503). He is a past winner of both the PMA Award for Best New Writer and the NSDF Sunday Times Playwriting Award.

Please be advised, this play contains real cigarettes, strong language and sexual content. Please call the Box Office for more information

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Director
Writer
Lighting
Designer
Sound Designer

Cast

Joanne Froggatt

Joanne Froggatt, best known for role as Anna in Downton Abbey, has appeared in numerous TV, film and stage productions including All About My Mother at The Old Vic, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf at the Royal Exchange Theatre and Be My Baby at Soho Theatre Company.

On screen she has appeared in Identity, Life on Mars, Island at War, Coronation Street and BAFTA Award winning drama See No Evil: The Moors Murderers.

Christopher Simpson

CHRISTOPHER SIMPSON:

Forthcoming films include the Cuban-set drama THE DAY OF THE FLOWERS, directed by John Roberts and Mira Fornayová’s psychological drama LITTLE FOXES. Other film work includes Sarah Gavron’s film adaptation of Monica Ali’s best-selling novel, BRICK LANE, Penny Woolcock’s exuberant MISCHIEF NIGHT, and Michael Winterbottom’s CODE 46. Christopher also worked with Mike Figgis on THE GROUND BENEATH HER FEET, and on French film LE FILS DE MON PERE, filmed on location in Paris.

Television includes: SPOOKS: CODE 9. The TV adaptation of Zadie Smith’s novel WHITE TEETH, SECOND GENERATION, and Paul Abbott’s STATE OF PLAY.

Theatre work includes FALLUJAH, written from eyewitness accounts and directed by Jonathan Holmes for ICA at the Truman Brewery, and THE BACCHAE OF BAGHDAD at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in which he played the lead, Dionysus. The title role in PERICLES in a site-specific co-production between the Royal Shakespeare Company and Cardboard Citizens, Bharatha in THE RAMAYANA at the National Theatre, and Omar in FRAGILE LAND at the Hampstead Theatre.

Aside from his work as an actor, he has written a song cycle, VERY PRESENT TENSE, which premiered during the Liverpool Capital of Culture. He also made a documentary for BBC Radio 4 called OTHER in which he explored the identities of people who have parents of different origins and have grown up in a culture belonging to neither parent.

Joe Cole

Theatre includes: Polling Booth (Theatre 503); Relish (National Youth Theatre), Brixton Rock (Young Vic Theatre); Bus (Cockpit Theatre); Talking to Byron (National Youth Theatre / Roundhouse Camden); Tits and Teeth (National Youth Theatre / Soho Theatre); Laters (Team Angelica / Drill Hall Theatre); Birdboot, Twelfth Night, Our Country’s Good (Ilex Theatre);
Accrington Pals, Our Bad Magnet, Helmet (Kingston Youth Theatre)

Television includes; Injustice, Citizen Shane Pilot, Stanley Park, The Bill, Holby City, Concrete Jungle.

Film Includes: Do Or Die 3D Teaser, Come Fly With Me, Hand, Assessment, Six.

Kerron Darby

Kerron trained at the Identity Drama School, the United Kingdom’s first black drama school.
Theatre credits include Totally Over You (Arcola Theatre) and Gunshot (Stratford Circus).
Television credits include The Bill, Casualty, BBC2’s Beautiful People and Silent Witness.

Holli Dempsey

THEATRE; Make Love Not War (Talawa); No Way Home (Made in Da Shade); Our Baby Charlie (Theatre Royal Stratford); Reparations (Black History Tour); The Final Hour (Breaking Walls).

TELEVISION; Tracey Beaker, The Bill.

FILM; Dots, The Fighter’s Ballad, Game Keepers Without Games

Andrew Woodall

Theatre includes: Hedda Gabler (Gate Theatre Dublin); Much Ado About Nothing, The Voysey Inheritance The Life of Galilio, Luther, The Shape of the Table, Racing Demon and, most recently, Women Beware Women (National Theatre); Gaslight, King Lear, The Provok’D Wife, Cloud Nine, Waste (all Old Vic); As You Like It (Wyndhams); As You Desire Me (Playhouse); The Sugar Syndrome, Disappeared, Search & Destroy and Weldon Rising (Royal Court); Burning Issues (Hampstead); Certain Young Men and Butterfly Kiss (Almeida); A Letter of Resignation (Savoy); Our Late Night (Ambassadors); Don Carlos (Glasgow Citizens).

Television includes: The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, Above Suspicion, Personal Affairs, Men are Wonderful, Place of Execution, Heartbeat, Lawless, Hear the Silence, Charles II, Starhunter, Ultimate Force, Dalziel & Pasco, Murder Rooms, Hearts & Bones, Harbor Lights, Gimme Gimme Gimme, Nature Boy, Kavanagh QC, Degrees of Error, Seaforth, Headhunters, Prime Suspect III, Between the Lines, Underbelly, Wish Me Luck and Hannay.

Film includes: Hypnotic, The Count of Monte Cristo and Regeneration.

Mandeep Dhillon

Mandeep trained at The Harris Drama School.

Theatre includes; The Tempest, Life (Candi Productions); New Path, Twisted Minds (Fearnhill Productions); Oliver, Annie (Wilbury Productions, Jeff Gentry).

Film includes; Some Dogs Bite.

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