Future Conditional, The Old Vic **

Future Conditional is not a good play. In trying to capture all the elements of the education system, Tamsin Oglesby creates a play that almost takes the form of a sketch show that happens to contain a debate about the state of British education. Unfortunately, the form the drama takes is not suited to the message the playwright wants to get across. However, the biggest problem with the play itself is the lack of children in it. With the exception of Alia, no students are characters in the play until the last scene which is nonsensical for a play about schools. It is admirable for the Vic to recruit a cast of fresh faces, with Nikki Patel making her stage debut. Her Alia is a wonderfully judged part that doesn't exploit her character's background for sympathy but instead is played straight which helps her win hearts through her logic rather than her situation. The rest of the young cast are equally brilliant however, in the mothers in playground scenes, Natalie Klamar's Suzy, who seems to have the view that the playwright wants us to root for, is entirely unsympathetic meaning that I really couldn't care for any of their imaginary children as all of the mothers were the most appalling people other than perhaps Amy Dawson's Kaye who is a victim of society rather than playing an active role in the continuation of the vicious secondary school game. I recognised their stereotypes in life, as I did in Rob Brydon's inspirational teacher yet he is no Hector not is he anything as inspirational as many of the teachers I have at my school. However this play isn't The History Boys and Brydon's performance is still excellent with his dulcet and lyrical tones providing a refreshing change of pace. He needed a prompt once which can be forgiven this early into previews and is great to see on the stage. Joshua McGuire gives the best performance of the evening, managing to make the posh Eton boy at the committee meeting seem almost sensible at sometimes and is one of the finest young talents I have seen. Rob Howell's attempt to evoke the school playground with his design is poor and makes this beautiful space look awful. The cast fail to recover a bad play, leading for Matthew Warchus' reign to make a rocky start.