A lesson in schoolyard rumour

Actor James Bell, a 2010 Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) graduate, makes his Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC) debut this month playing the schoolboy lead in The Joy Of Text, a role he landed — avert your eyes now, struggling Melbourne theatre types — almost as soon as he’d touched down in our fair city.

“I headed over to the east coast after graduating from WAAPA with the intention of moving to Sydney, but I auditioned for this the day after I arrived in Melbourne and found out I got it the next day. I thought, that settles it — I’m staying here,” the affable actor chuckled, clearly still marvelling at his lucky break.

A buzzing, intelligent classroom comedy that looks at student-teacher relations, the schoolyard rumour mill and the nature of satire, writer Robert Reid’s The Joy of Text first appeared as part of MTC’s Cybec Readings series last year. A strong crowd response meant it was soon given the green light for this debut main stage season.

“It’s been tested already and people liked it. Hopefully the cast we’ve assembled will make it even more interesting and funny,” Bell said.

And what a cast. Bell is joined by accomplished stage and screen actors Peter Houghton, Louise Siversen and Helen Christinson. Bell’s character, Danny, is the mischievous schoolboy who throws their world into a spin.

“Danny gets a hold of this controversial [fictional] book called The Illusion Of Consent, which is based around a student-teacher relationship.

“The writer, Amelia Turner, had written it 15 years ago and the teacher she’d based it on ended up killing himself. When Danny gets his hands on the book, he decides to stage his own little experiment spreading a rumour within the school with the book by his side.”

Bell was keen to point out, though, that his character’s actions were not born of malice.

“His mischievousness is based on confusion. He’s going through puberty, becoming a man, dealing with high school. He’s finding it all very confusing to cope with, and he deals with it by acting out with risky behaviour.

“It comes across as quite arrogant, but he’s doing it out of confusion and not understanding his own emotions. He’s trying to get what he wants, but at the same time he doesn’t really know what he wants.”

While the play should appeal to a wide cross-section of audiences, Bell said he thought it would hold particular interest for teachers, students and those with strong memories of schoolyard politics.

“We hear about these stories in the papers and on television, but they’re rarely discussed in this sort of depth,” he said.

“The play really looks at the dynamic between teacher, student and parent, and how we go about teaching students about the world.”

info: The Joy of Text plays at Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre, until July 23. www.mtc.com.au