The Maths Tutor

by Clare McIntyre

A wry and incisive play exposing how our desire for a normal family life and our fears about adults, young people and sex, can sometimes outride the truth. Tom and JJ are best mates, sharing school, hobbies and the same Maths tutor. Tom's parents seem to have the perfect marriage - yet nobody knows the secret deal that has kept the family together for years. But when JJ's mother starts a relationship with a younger man and JJ fabricates a terrible lie in revenge, everyone is forced to confront the hidden parts of their lives. 'Clare McIntyre's wise, funny and often moving drama explores accusations of child molestation, and many other issues of love, sexuality and family life, with a rare, unsentimental compassion and mounting dramatic tension' - Daily Telegraph 'shrewd, humorous and caring' - The Times

120 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 12, 2015

Reviews

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

McIntyre became quite the rage in the mid-80's, and this was her final play, written in 2003, prior to her passing from MS in 2009. It concerns two families who spend holidays together, as their sons are 15-year-old best buddies. J.J., son of the divorced Anna, is rather thick when it comes to math, so they hire the titular tutor for both boys; Jane, the mother of the other boy, Tom, unaware that tutor Brian is also her husband's lover.

When J.J., out of spite for his failing grades, accuses Brian of inappropriate touching, all hell breaks loose. There's a lot of yelling, but being British, everything ends on a civilized note, with J.J.'s lies revealed as such - I just wish McIntyre didn't take the conventional route of having to have the two men split; how much more radical to have given them a happy ending!