Former Riverview teacher writes fictional play about sexual abuse in schools

By Kate Crawford
Daily Telegraph
April 06, 2015

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/north-shore/former-riverview-teacher-writes-fictional-play-about-sexual-abuse-in-schools/story-fngr8h9d-1227292738513

Ben McCann plays a schoolboy in Vice by Melvyn Morrow.

Melvyn Morrow wrote Vice.

It stars Ben McCann.

Ben McCann plays a student who makes sexual accusations and Margi de Ferranti acts as a drama teacher.

Melvyn Morrow with his son Julian, who is known from The Chaser.

A FORMER Riverview teacher has written a disturbing play about sexual abuse at a Catholic boys’ school.

Playwright Melvyn Morrow of Mosman says the play has proved “tragically timely’’ in the light of the exposure recently of allegations that a former teacher at Riverview abused a boy more than 30 years ago.

Riverview principal Paul Hine contacted about 6500 former students after the allegation emerged, asking them to come forward if they knew of any similar allegations.

Morrow admits some audience members could be outraged by his play, Vice, which challenges assumptions about sexual abuse in schools.

It opens at the King Street Theatre in Newtown on April 21.

Morrow taught English and drama at independent schools for 47 years, including 30 years at Saint Ignatius’ College, Riverview and Jesuit schools overseas, retiring from teaching about eight years ago.

“I know where the bodies are buried,’’ he says.

Morrow says while the play is set in a fictional school he has drawn on his teaching experience and various “colourful characters’’ with whom he has taught.

“The play is not true but it’s truthful and exposes the underbelly of schools – the tensions, the personal politics, the ambitions, the vice,’’ he said.

“The disgusting history of sexual abuse in schools especially Catholic ones means schools can, on occasion, feel like powder kegs waiting to explode.’’

Morrow says he wrote the play about 18 months ago and it is set in the immediate past.

“Schools are like travel brochures what you see on the glossy brochure is not always the reality – schools can be jungles and when things explode, when sexual accusations are made, the shrapnel hits everyone,’’ he said.

Morrow, who co-wrote the musicals Shout! and Dusty, is also staging a concert at the Mosman Art Gallery on May 31.

Morrow also co-wrote a play called Her Holiness, challenging celibacy and the canonisation of the Mary MacKillop.

Morrow is also the father of Julian Morrow from the ABC’s Chaser team.

The two main characters in Vice are a deputy school principal who is after the principal’s job and a precocious student who is both a football player and actor in school productions.

Other characters include a flirtatious drama teacher and a gay school trustee.

“Three people in the play are open to suspicion,’’ says Morrow. “The audience become the investigators, the jury. The play is not so much a whodunnit and as who done what.’’

Morrow says despite the serious drama of the play, there is plenty of humour because “expert and artful teachers live and survive on the wits and their wit’’.

The play, directed by Elaine Hudson, stars Margi De Ferranti, Jonathon Deves, Roger Gimblett and Ben McCann as the young student.

Vice will continue at the King Street Theatre until May 10. Tickets $35/$30.