Dinah Glass arrives at a new school where the student body displays unnatural, robotic discipline. The pupils move in unison and speak in rhythmic chants, controlled by a headmaster who uses hypnotic trances to enforce total order. Dinah joins the Splat Pack, a small group of students who remain immune to his influence. Together, they discover his plan to use a national television competition as a platform to hypnotize the entire country. The script adapts Gillian Cross’s novel into scenes focused on psychological manipulation and the loss of individual autonomy.
Teachers and drama students use this playscript to study ensemble performance and stagecraft focused on tension. Readers interested in science fiction and social control observe how authority figures exploit psychological vulnerabilities to command obedience. The text provides a practical framework for analyzing how group dynamics shift when characters refuse to conform. Readers gain an understanding of how dialogue and stage directions build an atmosphere of surveillance, ultimately learning how resistance relies on collective action and mental resilience against coercive environments.
Practical, outward-looking, clear-cut and escapist; an easy read.
Best for readers like The Escapist Adventurer. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1990
- Language
- EN
