Yet this is ultimately a paean to the self-sacrificing dedication of great teachers – and, thanks to Walker’s blazing performance, it’s a lesson that touches the heart too.
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Ultimately though, Cooke’s production is a rejuvenation. The lasting feeling is one of hope: for the power of education and language, and their potential for nudging us into broader, more colourful horizons.
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I can’t see anything other than A*s being bestowed on Walker’s unmissable performance...School-days may or may not be the best days of our lives; what this riveting evening brings home is how crucial they invariably are.
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It's that sense of voice, of education unlocking an ability to speak, that makes The Corn is Green such a powerful story. This production reveals that truth under the melodramatic gesturing. As Noel Coward said of cheap music, it is extraordinary how potent it is.
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This is a fine example of how to revive a dated play and make it feel postmodern and fresh. But the text of ‘The Corn is Green’ lacks the raw power needed to make this exercise feel worthwhile...Strong performances and an undeniable momentum make it fun to watch, but there's not much to ponder when the music fades.
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Yes, it’s all very old-fashioned, and the neatly packaged ending wouldn’t get through a script conference at Call the Midwife. Signing off with Thanks for the Memory is clumsy, too. Yet for all that, it’s still a curiously watchable time capsule.
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Cooke is aware of the play’s faults and is content to examine rather than erase them, but the greatest strength here is that he finds the play’s missing heart.
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It would be easy to write off this revival of Emlyn Williams’ semi-autobiographical drama as an example of post-lockdown “comfort theatre”...But if it is comfort viewing, it is undeniably artful, affecting and hugely entertaining.
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