School forms a significant part of our childhoods/teenagehood – educational structures that are vital for setting us up towards the future and our potentially lifelong friendships. But what happens when this structure doesn’t necessarily address the mental health and emotional realities of the day? Emma Anderson’s pertinent production The Lesson opens up the conversation on how the system could better respond to increasing mental health demand, hopefully starting the necessary steps to address this.
Placed in an underfunded, London based secondary school, The Lesson sways between drama teacher Clara (Geebs Marie Williams) solitarily in her drama studio doing what she can to best plan ahead for a successful teaching week, burnt out, pondering, continually attempting to problem solve how she can better support the future generation.