A LIBERAL teacher finds herself sleeping with the enemy after being drawn into plans for a free school in Steve Waters' politically charged drama.
Rachel, reeling from a bitter divorce and disillusioned with her job, throws her energy into establishing a new school in Hammersmith's West 12 shopping centre, in a bid to prevent her son Sam being lured away to a public school on the outskirts of London.
The play starts promisingly, with young Sam caught in the middle of his rowing parents, who can't even agree about the amount of middle names Tolkein had.
But when Rachel (Claire Price) abandons her socialist principles to bed down with the uber upper-middle class gang behind the new academy, the targets become a little too easy.
Most of the laughs in the opening half come from pot-shots at the Guardian reading, fennel tea drinking middle classes, for whom small talk consists of what the colour 'scarab' adds to a room.
Waters raises lots of interesting questions about Michael Gove's much-vaunted free schools, and I defy anyone to leave the theatre without debating the future of education, but the politics is too often slapped on a bit thickly.
Joanne Froggatt draws the biggest laughs as a prim junior minister, with something of the schoolteacher about her, brilliantly pricking the odious Nick's sense of entitlement.
The parallels between Sam, largely fogotten as his parents row about his future, and the current generation of children caught in the middle of rowing politicians, are clear to see.
The best moment comes with a fleeting appearance by Rachel's former charges from the much-scorned Mandela school, which puts all the politics in context.
Little Platoons plays in repertory with The Knowledge. If you're going to pick one I'd recommend the latter, John Donnelly's sharply written black comedy, but this is a fine companion piece.
