School Bag

On Friday the 20th and Saturday the 21st of November, the play 'School Bag', by Zara Airall became a reality. It was staged at the University Centre on both days. On Saturday evening, the attendance was very good. It was almost a full house. The performance first started out with the portrayal of difference scenarios separate to the actual play. It dealt with dilemmas prevalent in our society, expectations, lack of guidance, drugs and the like but being a school play, it focused around graduating.
Mikhail Matthias, in monologue, played the role of a young boy living the fast life. Like many young men, he loved women. Behind him were human props like a manikin in the form of Ariel Derrik, wearing a graduation gown, and frozen emulations of types of womem which he would occasionally turn and dance with or refer to. Sarah-Ann Gresham was a representation of every other woman in his eyes, being average and less than astonishing, easy, Then Alyssa Derrick was the woman he fell in love with. The contrast between the two, he tells us, is that Alyssa had ambition, class and pride, dignity and intelligence. However he as a young man was defeaten by this, for he had never been taught to be a real man whenever he came across a real woman. It ate at him inside and he turned to drugs and the fast lane. He never got to graduate.
Alecka Edwards and Zayne Airall froze out of tableau after Mikhail and his props exited. They delivered their story in the more conventional manner. They acted out a scene of an argument about their new born baby. Having to give up dreams and having to suffer ridicule and judgement from the society in which they live. Being a pastor's daughter there were expectations they she was to live by and being a street boy, there were several assumptions that were going to be made however they came to common grounds when they both decide to stay in their child's life. They never got to graduate.
Then, as they exit, up from the audience is a very angry young lady, spiteful and hurt. Arita Phillip portrays the character who has known no real love, who has neither a mother nor a father. No one respects her and society expects her to be the low life skank her mother was; to never graduate, and never have the capability to do something that would make someone proud of her. She compares herself to the characters before her, how they had everything they needed to succeed, while she had nothing. She says 'My mother could not even tell you what primary school I attended.' She, however displayed a lot of charisma. She 'showed them'. She learnt her lesson and did not become distracted, though she was angry at her fate, she took off the gown and wore the cap and proudly marched off the stage. She got to graduate.
This segment of the performance ended with a blackout. The play was so well thought through however, that a stage help had to lift and remove the manikin that remained on stage. During blackouts music was played to maintain the interest of the audience, however on various occasions, songs had to be repeatedly played and blackouts became too long. Another performance of a dance in ballet style to the song, 'When I ruled the world'.
The characters assumed their position on stage to begin the play. They are all in uniform and the setting and backdrop is of a classroom with a window and door that overlooked a field with a tree. The classroom was filled with many characters. This was evident through their walk, looks, hairstyles and dress. Kayla was the character who was most isolated. Her hair was wild and covered her face. She walked with her head hung. She is the first person on the set. She sits alone and buries her head in her elbow. Then she pulls out pills and an alcoholic beverage from her bag. The shimmer resembling tears is seen from her eye corners and on her cheeks and as she hides these things away, the lights come back on to full white and the other characters come on the scene. Leslie is seated upon a desk and her uniform shirt is tied across her stomach so that it is revealed. Then she walks with confidence to another girl and takes her book for no apparant reason. From her first action, one can conclude that she is the bully of the play. The victim of the situation is Arlene who displays great bravery and shows that she thinks very highly of herself. She confronts Leslie immidiately and does not back down even though she was frightened by as simple a sound as Leslie's yell 'BOO!' Tanya is at her side saying nothing about the situation so that one can conclude that she is friends with Leslie but she does not bully like she does. She, Michelle and Jace all are the peace makers. They each come from the different cliques. Jace however was the main character trying to make peace like in always encouraging Leslie to 'Jus cool'. Keysha was a mojor victim of Leslie's scorn. She was fat and she struggled hard to fit in. She carried with her, everywhere, some item of food to eat. She was quiet and carried a scared kind of facial expression, when Leslie got on her case she did not defend herself in the least. Teeshorn was Leslie's brother, he, however was very different, he was very frustrated and annoyed by his sister's behaviour. Kyle was just another guy in the play. He hung with the boys and believed in the fast life, he did not like to be involved in 'mix up stories' but he was subject to peer pressure. Malik is a young man who got kicked out of the school but obviously his heart or his mind is still there because he is always sneaking on to the property. He is called 'a nothing' and is violent and ignorant. The other characters included Mary, Stacy and Lisa.
In the plot, there are several different stories carrying on. Displaying how it really is in a classroom. The different situations faced by different children in the same classroom along with the pressures of staying focused and tolerating ridicule by fellow classmates. Most of the main characters undergo some form of change. Leading to the climax several things come to the forefront. Keysha becomes slim and Tanya starts to pay more attention to her, listening and acting more like a friend. Tanya gets involved with Kyle and engages in sexual intercourse. This is seen through her being at his side and leaving when he says to do so, and then the condoms fall out of her bag after it drops because of a well performed collision. Kyle is roughed up by Jace, who is hinted by some things that others say, and his gang tattoo is revealed. Leslie sinks deeper and deeper down into the wrong lifestyle. She too has the joined the gang and become Malik's 'property.' She begins to slanders all her friends and thus looses her relationship with all, even her brother, who wants nothing to do with the monster she's become. Jace's dilemma with his father is revealed also, his problem of never listening and he therefore turns out to be a listener. Suspense is upheld in the story over the book that Kayla was seen always writing in. At it's absense she becomes frantic, sad and more isolated. Jace confesses that he has been keeping it and reading it and wants to reach out to help her, but the audience is never informed as to what the book contains.
Keysha ends up putting her physical and emotional health into too much jeopardy. At her first outbreak, she is in a confrontation with Leslie but she faints and this is the end of her entrances and exits. Tanya began to stand on her own two feet and stick up for others and herself but she was too late, her mistakes were too far gone and she became pregnant and was sent away. Kyle became lost in his ways in the fast lane and he no longer continued with school. Leslie grew distant and dropped out of school aswell but she still had consciousness of what is right. As she comes into the school to commit a crime and instill fear in her past classmates at the side of Malik, the tables turn as he gets into a conflict with her brother and as she points the gun to a frightened Michelle on the floor, as Malik fight on the floor, she unexpectedly aims her gun at Malik and pulls the triggor. Malik died. After these chains of dramatic scenes, the class population is decreased by a large amount but no one genuinely cares, though as the audience there is a significant difference to the beginning classroom scene being an on looker, one recognizes the sadness of it, but the classmates just gather and gossip with one another, but Kayla is still separate to them, still writing.
There is one person who cares, Kayla. As in the first scene, the lights become dim and blue as she voices her last journal entry where she says that she just cant take it anymore, the sadness she sees around her that could have easily been avoided if only they noticed she was there to listen and care, but she was over looked. Then she commits suicide. She says 'In addition to my own pain, I felt theirs. Their pain became my own.'
It was of a great dramatic impact when, as she was seen writing in the background, all of the classmates came out with candles and spoke about their significance to the world because of their significance to Kayla according to the things she wrote about each and every one of them. She saw the positives and knew about their situations and genuinely cared. Then they blew out their candles and came down from the stage facing her, her lifeless body resting on the school desk and chair, and bowed their heads.
The sound effects, costume, disguises and backdrops were all very good. Sound effects like when Keysha puked, the gun shot, the phone ringing, and the voices over the phone were very effective and precise. The costume was of an original school uniform and the moderations that could be done to that type of uniform by the students in their self expression were slightly diverse so that dressing could reveal a bit about personalities. The backdrop was a well painted representation of a classroom so that did enhance the play. The effort and thought put into pulling off this play was evidently at a high standard. This was indeed an exceptional play.