Review on "School Bags"

On Friday 20th November, 2009 my Literature class attended the play called, "School Bags". It began at approximately after 8pm. This play which was situated at the University of the West Indies Open campus, Antigua was about life as a a school child and the turmoils in which they are faced. "School Bags" reflects on the great absences of parents in our children's lives today. The production began with the opening selection of "the Graduate". This was about the minor struggles in which teens may undertake before they can refer to themselves as graduates of high school. Such struggles illustrated were that of teenage pregnancy, a male teen who turns to to the thug life and a female teen who lacks a father in her household. This selection was quite touching since it showed that we as teens must learn to overcome those obstacles and focus on the right of life.
"School Bags" began in the classroom setting. the main idea was to portray the average day of a student. As usual, the students were divided into their various cliques; the popular kids, the nerds, the thugs and the few that wanted to or couldn't care less to fit in. Obviously, the popular kids acknowledged themselves as the "leaders" of the class often bullying those who were lower on the social scale. There were other small conflicts for instance some of the students' joining of gangs, having sexual intercourse, students with insecurities in this case one of the students being criticized by her weight, students' drug and alcohol usage and sexual abuse. On most occasions, there is always a strong belief that a play such as this would end on a good note but ironically it did not. None of the stated conflicts were solved. i guess in a sense we as teens and as the audience wee to solve it ourselves;to take into affect what we had witnessed and to try our best to learn from their mistakes.
The lighting and props used were very suitable for the play in that the lights were dimmed to create dramatic effect and the props such as the students' attire and the desks came into place to present the classroom scene. Overall, the play was one of the best I have ever seen so far. the only aspect of it which needed a bit more improvement was the actors and actresses' projection. At some points of the play it was a bit difficult to grasp what they were saying.
The play "School Bags" reflects on the great amount of talent our youths possess.