Nativity! - discussion guide

© E1 Entertainment.

Summary

Paul Maddens (Martin Freeman) is a failed actor turned primary school teacher. Every year his school puts on a nativity play that is surpassed in every way by the one that Paul’s old rival, Gordon Shakespeare (Jason Watkins), puts on at the local independent school. This Christmas Paul is keen to avoid the embarrassment altogether, but finds himself enlisted as director. The next time Paul meets Gordon, he boasts that their old friend, Jenny (Ashley Jensen), is flying in from Hollywood to make his production into a book and film. This ridiculous lie gathers pace in the hands of Paul’s naive classroom assistant, Mr. Poppy (Marc Wootton). Soon everyone believes that Hollywood is coming to Coventry.

As Gordon and Paul vie for the best-reviewed Christmas production, their true colours are revealed. Gordon’s early introduction as a man who ‘only truly loved himself’ is exemplified again and again. He disciplines and motivates his class, but only in the pursuit of his aspirations. Paul’s frustrated ambition is just as destructive as Gordon’s. He labels his class, ‘literally useless’, creates a lie to save face in front of Gordon and repeatedly blames Mr. Poppy for his failures. It is clear that both nativities revolve around the teachers directing them.

Eventually Paul learns something from Mr. Poppy, a childlike messianic figure who puts the children before himself. It is Mr. Poppy who inspires Paul to bring the nativity play to life.

Background

It was Debbie Isitt (director and screenwriter) who came up with the concept of a film about a school nativity play, mostly out of nostalgia:

I was Mary when I was seven and my sister was Mary the year before and my other sister was Mary the year after. Mary was my first stage role and I absolutely loved it. It was my heyday.[1]

However, primarily she was looking to capture the experience of the teachers involved rather than the children. She drew on the experiences of friends who went into teaching after their acting careers fell through. Although they felt like failures, Isitt insists that, ‘being a teacher is far more important than being an actor or director. I have met so many inspirational teachers over the years that I really wanted to explore the notion of teaching and education in Nativity!’

As with her last film, Confetti, Isitt was adamant about using improvisation to bring spontaneity and collaboration to the film-making process. She also selected her cast very carefully, pitting Martin Freeman (The Office, Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy) against Marc Wootton (Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel). Freeman comments, ‘You know the adage about never working with children and animals? Well, Marc Wootton is another one – there’s children, animals and Marc. He is half beast, half child.’

In a press conference, Freeman commended the nativity story because in it ‘great things happen to the smallest, tiniest person and the least likely people end up being elevated to the highest status.’[2] Nativity! conveys the biblical message through the children’s performance and the incidents surrounding it.

Questions For Discussion

1. What have your experiences of nativity plays been like? What was good about them? What wasn’t?

2. Paul says he hates Christmas. Can you identify with this? Why or why not?

3. How did the film make you feel? Which parts did you enjoy most?

4. Did you identify with Paul? What did you think of Martin Freeman’s performance?

5. What did you think of Paul’s teaching methods? Debbie Isitt said, ‘We get so hung up on academic results that we sometimes forget how to value children properly and how to inspire them to be the best they can be.’ Do you think this is true?

6. What were your first impressions of Gordon? Do you know people like him? How do you respond to them?

7. Have you ever experienced a lie that quickly escalated? What motivated the lie? How was the situation resolved?

8. Paul talks about ‘a little white lie’ and ‘a big black protestant lie.’ Do you think there is a difference? Why or why not?

9. Do you think that Paul and Mr. Poppy were just as wrong to continue the lie as Paul was to initiate it? What might you have done in that situation?

10. What do you think Mr. Poppy’s role was in the film? What did he add to the story?

11. Did you approve of the way he motivated the class for the nativity? What did you think he did well? What do you think he did badly?

12. The nativity is often called ‘the greatest story ever told.’ Do you agree and why? What did you think of the nativity play at the end of the film?

13. What do you think the film is saying about the way we relate to other people? Do you agree with what it’s saying and why or why not?

14. What do you think the true meaning of Christmas is? Do you think the nativity story has any meaning for us today? If so, why, and if not, why not?

Back