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Saturday Drama: Little Platoons

Little Platoons

04/06/2011

BBC Radio 4 - Saturday Drama, Little Platoons

By Steve Waters. A witty satire about Free Schools. With Claire Price and Richard Henders.

By Steve Waters. What are 'Free Schools' all about? Rachel finds out the hard way in this story of middle-class ambition, hypocrisy and naivety.

by Steve Waters

Separated from her partner, Martin, and disillusioned with teaching at the west London comprehensive which their son Sam attends, Rachel's looking for an outlet for her evangelical zeal. More out of curiosity than conviction, she goes to a pilot meeting of a free-school initiative headed by middle-class Nick and Lara. Only to find herself embroiled in a mix of private and public rows that exposes the confusion that surrounds the subject of how we can best educate our children.

Rachel de Witt ..... Claire Price
Martin ..... Richard Henders
Nick Orme ..... Andrew Woodall
Lara Orme ..... Susannah Harker
Parvez Akhtar ..... Christopher Simpson
Polly Tyneham ..... Joanne Froggatt
Samuel ..... Otto Farrant
Marcus ..... Kerron Darby
Amitha ..... Mandeep Dhillon
Sadie ..... Holli Dempsey
Brandon ..... Joe Cole

Directed for stage by Nathan Curry
Produced by Jeremy Mortimer

This radio production is presented with the original cast from the Bush Theatre production which premiered earlier this year. Reviews for the Bush Theatre production:

[Little Platoons] wittily exposes the confusion that surrounds the subject of how we best educate our children.... **** Michael Billington, Guardian

I can't recall a more urgently satirical local play at this address in all the wonderful 38 years of its existence. It's also a witty paradigm of subsidised theatre in its subject matter: a middle-class initiative born of self-interested motives using public money. Perfect. **** Michael Coveney, Whatsonstage.com.

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