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liralen's review
3.0
Schoolhouse is set up much in the same way as [b:The Occupation of Heather Rose|7403679|The Occupation of Heather Rose|Wendy Lill|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353574325l/7403679._SY75_.jpg|9308502] or (to a lesser extent but even more on-point thematically) [b:Sisters|3126354|Sisters|Wendy Lill|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353574009l/3126354._SY75_.jpg|3157707]: we have an adult looking back at her work with a rural and/or vulnerable population. Here it's Melita Linton, a young but iron-spined teacher who...well. Sweeps in and reforms them all, I guess. (Isn't this a thing that happens in one of the Anne of Green Gables books?)
It's not a bad play, exactly, but it's definitely heavy on the cliché—there's nary a child that Miss Linton can't tame with a well-placed word (in a single go, at that!), and the Worst Child Who Ever Lived has been so branded because. (I guess we're also getting some Les Misérables. Ohhh, and The Sound of Music—creatures in the drawers, and pins on the chair, and so on, for about three seconds before the students fall head over heels for the teacher.)
But the thing is: if this had been Wendy Lill writing this (see plays linked above), we wouldn't have been allowed to leave it at 'here's a heartwarming schoolhouse tale!'—instead we'd gradually (or not so gradually) see that this heartwarming tale is the very sanitised version, the one told by the victor, if you will, and that there are other versions. But here...Miss Linton is the hero, and only ever the hero, and the few stuck-in-their-ways-and-not-very-nice characters don't get much time on stage, and while that's certainly nicer to read, it's also less interesting.
It's not a bad play, exactly, but it's definitely heavy on the cliché—there's nary a child that Miss Linton can't tame with a well-placed word (in a single go, at that!), and the Worst Child Who Ever Lived has been so branded because
Spoiler
he once stole to feed his familyBut the thing is: if this had been Wendy Lill writing this (see plays linked above), we wouldn't have been allowed to leave it at 'here's a heartwarming schoolhouse tale!'—instead we'd gradually (or not so gradually) see that this heartwarming tale is the very sanitised version, the one told by the victor, if you will, and that there are other versions. But here...Miss Linton is the hero, and only ever the hero, and the few stuck-in-their-ways-and-not-very-nice characters don't get much time on stage, and while that's certainly nicer to read, it's also less interesting.
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