John Godber revisits his hit 1980s play Teechers and reboots it for the 21st century for Hull Truck's 50th anniversary

Bradwell’s and the Hull Truck origin story was told on stage by another Hull legend, Richard Bean, in 71 Coltman Street earlier this year. Now it’s time to turn to Godber.

The incumbent artistic director Mark Babych is a man who values the history of the building of which he has charge, which is why early on in the planning of this year he turned to Godber.

“Mark contacted me to say he was putting together an anniversary programme and he asked if I’d like to write something new,” says Godber.

“I told him that the idea of bringing Teechers, a production first performed by the Hull Truck Theatre company back in 1987, up to date had been on my mind for some time. Since I left Hull Truck I’ve maintained links with schools in and around the East Riding and I could see that despite more than 35 years having passed since Teechers was first performed, so many themes and issues explored in play were still relevant. It seemed the perfect time to revisit this story for a new generation.”

Teechers and Bouncers are, arguably, Godber’s most recognised and popular works. While one is set in the drama department of a secondary school and the other in a northern nightclub, they have more in common than you might first think. As ever, Godber’s politics are writ large in the piece. The son of an Upton miner, Godber has spent a lifetime fighting the corner of the underdog.

In Teechers, as in Bouncers, a small company is called on to multi-role. Here Gail, Hobby and Salty are young people leaving school and heading into an uncertain future, performing a final piece for the drama department and telling the story of a teacher who is grappling with his own future (just as Godber did in real life). “Teaching drama develops empathy, without which we are an increasingly isolated and self-centred society. Drama gets us off our phones and on our feet,” says Godber.

It’s not a surprise that Godber returned to this old favourite when asked by Babych for a contribution to the year’s celebrations. He might have just as easily gone for Bouncers, a crowd-pleasing favourite that was staged as Hull Truck left its previous home at Spring Street before moving to its current location.

“I guess that Teechers and Bouncers both endure because they are very legible pieces of theatre. Both exist in a storytelling mould and both are free-flowing and theatrical, not in any way constrained by the notion of a play taking place in a room. Maybe it’s this elasticity that means they can morph through time,” says Godber on the appeal of the plays for today.

He has updated the story for a modern audience, the play even bearing a new title for the anniversary year, Teechers Leavers ’22. “Hull Truck Theatre team put together a cohort of teachers from across Hull and I spent many hours speaking to them about issues facing them and the young people they teach today. I also spoke to many students to find out how they felt – especially in the wake of the pandemic – and the impact this had had not only on their education but their prospects once they leave school.

“A lot has changed, awareness around mental health, the importance of safeguarding – how social media impacts every facet of their lives. But a lot has stayed the same – especially in terms of the marginalisation of the arts in state schools, which if anything is worse now than when I first wrote the play in the 80s.”

He really does remain intensely political and the last few years have done nothing to dull those political instincts. If anything, they might be sharper than ever.

“Although I’ve adapted Bouncers over the years, I’ve never felt the same drive to reimagine Teechers. However during the pandemic I became more and more aware and angry about the inequalities in our education system. Perhaps even more so now than when I was a teacher over forty years ago,” says Godber.

While the themes remain, Godber has made allowances for the passage of time. “Obviously, the language has changed, teenagers now have a whole new vernacular which had to be incorporated to make the characters seem real and authentic. I also changed the drama teacher character from male to female. Quite simply this is because when I wrote the play, I based that character on myself and my experience as a drama teacher. Many of the teachers I spoke to were women, so it made sense to write it as a female role.

“The impact of the pandemic is also a big theme as I feel it put the whole education system – and its failings especially for working class students – under a microscope. Digital poverty is a huge issue now and students not being able to access the internet via a computer or phone during lockdown meant for many – they couldn’t access their education for a major portion of the last two years. The repercussions of this are huge.

“However, I truly believe that harnessing the power of storytelling – whether that’s through writing or acting – is a way of overcoming these problems which is another reason the arts should be a priority now more than ever and why this particular story resonates so much still today.”

Teechers Leavers ‘22, is at Hull Truck Theatre, to June 11. Tickets from the box office on 01482 323638 or via hulltruck.co.uk