The Pedagogue - A Monodrama - by James Saunders (1963)First performance at the Questors Theatre, Ealing, June 1963 -
First professional production at the Theatre-in-the-Round, Scarborough, Summer 1963 -
© 1968 James Saunders published by Andre Deutsch, (London, England), 1968 (Neighbours and other plays - James Saunders) ISBN-10: 0233960309 ISBN-13: 978-0233960302 also contains Neighbours + Trio + Triangle + Alas, Poor Fred + Return To A City + A Slight Accident © 1968 James Saunders published by Heinemann Educational Books, (London, England), 1968 (Neighbours and other plays - James Saunders) ISBN-10: 0435237861 ISBN-13: 978-0435237868 also contains Neighbours + Triangle + Trio + Alas, Poor Fred + Return to a City + A Slight Accident commentary by Ronald Hayman The Pedagogue: a monologue by a schoolmaster which brilliantly combines the most naturalistic observations with the most profound illumination of the human condition. - (inside cover, Andre Deutsch, 1968) The Pedagogue was... written for the Questors - in April 1963. They produced it two months later. The schoolmaster.. [lives] by logic and [expects] things to go smoothly. He believes in science, authority, man's capacity for survival, and has faith that everything happens for the best. The children in the classroom are created partly through sound-effects but chiefly by writing in one side of the dialogue that the schoolmaster has with them, which makes it possible for us to guess not only what they say but also how they move. Beryl is particularly vivid. The second half of the play becomes less realistic, as the teacher gets carried away from Phipps's essay into his own account of the Creation. This prepares for the end of the play when the unspecified events outside - perhaps the beginnings of a nuclear war - scare all the children into running away. The pedagogue talks on to an empty classroom and finally the Word fades into silence. - Ronald Hayman (from the commentary, Heinemann, 1968) |