WHAT happens to a family when privilege is abused and trust vanishes? When cheating becomes a code to live by and deception a justified means to an end?

So asks Jonathan Lewis in The Be All And All, whose world premiere will be staged at York Theatre Royal from tomorrow to May 19, with Lewis being joined by his partner, Imogen Stubbs, in artistic director Damian Cruden's cast.

Lewis's earlier work, Soldier On – a study of post-traumatic stress disorder and the therapeutic benefit to military veterans of doing theatre work – played the Theatre Royal Studio last month. Now, his new contemporary drama depicts a crisis besieging a Government minister's family after he makes a life-changing decision to ensure his self-harming, drug-taking 18-year-old son, Tom, has the best possible start in life as he prepares to leave his private school.

Would you cheat? Would you lie? Would you betray your wife’s trust? Would you do absolutely anything to safeguard your son’s future? This politician would, and once his secrets and lies are exposed, his family is split apart by his abuse of power, hunger for success, fear of failure and loss of a moral compass.

"This is a story where Tom has been put in the high-achievers classes, with extra private tuition as well, but he's not happy with that," says Jonathan, who plays the politician. "Tom's had a drug problem, and because his parents have focused on him so much, he has problems of self-confidence too. In various ways, he has sent out cries for help that his parents have not understood.

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Playwright Jonathan Lewis in rehearsal for his role as the Government minister in The Be All And End All. Picture: Anthony Robling 

"But it takes a brave parent to take a child out of a school, to say maybe we've got him in the wrong school. It's very difficult to change path when you've gone down one path, especially when you're working parents and you just hope the path will be fine."

The Be All And End All is set in Tom's last week of his school curriculum. "Both parents say, come on, we're on the home strait, let's get through this week; we recognise the system's not right, but it's the system that exists," says Imogen, who plays the wife. "They're both busy people; he's a politician; she runs a business, and you daren't be too critical of the education system when you're caught up in it."

When Jonathan began writing the play, his central character was a Liberal Democrat politician in the Conservative/LibDem coalition. "But time has moved on and I wanted him to be a Government minister, part of the decision-making elite, so he's now a Tory," he says.

The politician's political colours are not as important as his motives behind his actions, however. "His behaviour is guided by trying to do what he thinks is best for his son, and it's easy to feel that's he's the bad guy because he's a Government minister, but that's not the case," says Imogen. "He's misguided. It's done out of love," says Jonathan.

"The idea for the play evolved from a conversation with my son after he did his GCSEs. I hadn’t quite understood the pressure schoolkids are under. As I started to talk to him about it I realised it was not just him I was interested in but how that affected me and my relationship with my ex-wife and the teacher – and the pressure on them all," he continues.

"One of the themes is the education system’s obsession with exams and grades. If you try and put numbers around everything you are not telling the whole story. The education system has been turned into a business and just testing children about what they know."

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The Be All And End All cast members Matt Whitchurch, left, Imogen Stubbs, Jonathan Lewis and Robyn Cara with director Damian Cruden, back. Picture: Anthony Robling

Imogen, who has been through the education system with two children and three stepchildren, concurs: "We both feel very strongly about the potential damage done by homogenising education that at its worst becomes battery farming, rather than organic. I don’t remember exams dominating my life the way they dominate children’s lives now."

The play presents a debate between expediency and traditional values, she adds. "If you don't believe in the system, why should you honour it...but if you're not honouring it and saying it's not working, what are you offering children instead?" she asks.

The Be All and End All is one of three plays Lewis is writing in his Education, Education, Education trilogy. The first, A Level Playing Field, was staged at London’s Jermyn Street Theatre in 2015 with a cast of school leavers; the third will look at the state of education from a teacher’s viewpoint.

"I was speaking to a headmistress who said the biggest casualty of the education system was joy," says Imogen. "Joy for teachers and joy for children. Where have they gone?"

"It must be so demoralising for teachers to just encourage their pupils to regurgitate," says Jonathan. "What must that feel like for teachers?" says Imogen. "If teachers aren't passionate about their work, what does that say?"

"They should be as valued as brain surgeons," reckons Jonathan, who equally notes how children are being educated in a system where they keep being told their grades are not of a value they once were.

There is a choice, however, he suggests. "Do we just follow the bean counters and make education as prescriptive as possible, but with watered-down standards, or do we try to change it?

"I believe we have a very real opportunity to change the education system and not just tinker with it, to prepare children for the 21st century, not just to continue the way it is," he says. "It would need brave thinking, but too many people have invested in the system as it is now."

The Be All And End All plays York Theatre Royal from tomorrow to May 19 before touring to Colchester and Windsor. Performances: 7.30pm, plus 2pm on May 10 and 17; 2.30pm, May 12 and 19. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk