Code of Conduct

Everybody has a secret.  What better way to generate tension? In Rory Godbold’s skilfully structured play, set in a ‘gospel based’ Christian school, that tension is heightened when the secrets are not all that secret.  It’s just that harmony must be maintained, and the status quo unruffled via pretence and, well, hypocrisy.  It’s easier – especially with the new Religious Discrimination provisions in regard to schools…

Paul (Matthew Connell) is about to be the new drama teacher at this school.  He’s signed the eponymous ‘code of conduct’ – of course he has.  He’s a good teacher, great with kids and he needs the job.  His preliminary interview with Headmistress Clare (Sarah Sutherland) and Senior Teacher Sarah (Molly Holohan) is a beautifully judged exercise in polite evasions on both sides.  Mumsy Clare is well-meaning and well-intentioned (and she always brings sweet biscuits to any meeting), but after all, she has signed the ‘code of conduct’ too. 

Paul soon meets colleague David (Charles Purcell), the aggressive jock gym and sports teacher, who always enters the staff room as if he intends to deck someone.  His macho manner is so full on it’s not hard to guess his secret – and so it proves.

Paul bonds with quiet, empathetic Sarah (a lovely performance from Molly Holohan, so natural that it looks like she’s not acting at all).  Connell brings his characteristic focussed intensity to his Paul, upping the tension as we wait for Paul’s genial front to shatter.  His scenes with unassuming but strong Sarah provide an intriguing contrast: she has her secret too.  Underneath the placid surface, trouble is brewing. 

Godbold’s point here is that all this repression can only last so long; the moral contortions necessary to maintain it are holding down an explosion – and violating the code – not of conduct but of silence - can ironically do more harm than good. 

One of Paul’s students, Emma, is recalcitrant, often late and refusing to take part in class activities.  ‘Emma’ wants to shave her head and then to be known as ‘him’ because he is a boy…  (There is so much talk of ‘Emma’ and so many crucial decisions made about him, that we do expect the character to appear…)  Under the ‘code of conduct’, ‘Emma’ is seriously disruptive, but progressive, sympathetic Paul doesn’t judge; he wants to help.  ‘Emma’ now ‘Noah’ (eventually played by Kurt Pimblett) is the catalyst that brings things to a head.

Code of Conduct is a no frills, no budget production that nevertheless holds the audience in its suspenseful grip for its almost 90 minutes.  Mark Wilson uses the small Gasworks Theatre Studio inventively, employing every possible point of entry and exit for the play’s many scenes.  (There are no wings in this space.)  He has a sure feel for the rhythm of the piece and, via fine performances from all, builds and builds to a natural (but not predictable) climax – and then a devastating denouement. 

All the action takes place on Jessamine Moffett’s simple staff room set – a couch, some armchairs, a coffee table, under rippling red silk banners proclaiming the school’s Christian ideology.   The plan is, apparently, to tour the play and the well thought out simplicity of means certainly makes that possible.  Godbold’s previous play, When the Light Leaves, about assisted dying, was the winner of 2022 Queer Playwriting Award.  Code of Conduct is a worthy successor.

Michael Brindley