© ATOM 2012 A STUDY GUIDE BY CHRISTIE COOK http://www.metromagazine.com.au ISBN: 978-1-74295-223-9 http://www.theeducationshop.com.au Series consists of 8 episodes of approximately 43 mins each Teacher Puberty Blues is a television series based on the - Language: knowing about the English language book by Gabrielle CareyNotes and Kathy Lette - Literature: understanding, appreciating, re- sponding to, analysing and creating literature Producers: John Edwards and Imogen Banks - Literacy: expanding the repertoire of Directors: Glendyn Ivin and Emma Freeman English usage Writers: Tony McNamara (Episodes 1, 4, 5 and 7), Fiona Seres (Episodes 2 and 6), Alice Bell This guide may also assist NSW teachers of Stage (Episodes 3, 5 and 8) 6 English with the current Area of Study. Curriculum Links Teachers of students under fifteen years of age 2012 © ATOM SCREEN EDUCATION should note that Puberty Blues deals extensively Puberty Blues is suitable for senior secondary stu- with adult themes, however carefully selected dents studying the National Curriculum subjects of: scenes may be of use in teaching the National Curriculum Year 10 History course unit entitled The - English Globalising World under the Popular Culture (1945– - Essential English Present) elective: Continuity and Change in beliefs and values that have influenced the Australian way Above: Debbie (Ashleigh Cummings) and Sue Student activities will be categorised into the three of life. (Brenna Harding) strands as defined by ACARA: 2 EPISODIC SYNOPSES EPISODE ONE Summer, 1977. Joined-at-the-hip teenagers Debbie and Sue are having the time of their lives, hanging out on Cronulla Beach and fantasising about getting into the Greenhills gang – the bronzed surfers and their chicks who rule the beach. But Debbie and Sue are blissfully unaware of the sexual and social mores of the group they long to join, and just as unaware of the tangled sexual and emotional lives their parents lead. EPISODE TWO Debbie and Sue go to great lengths to get the attention of the Greenhills gang, including getting caught cheating at school. But when Debbie catches the eye of Bruce Board, ace surfer and super spunk, she’s in. While she revels in her new-found status on the beach, Sue is mortified to come home and discover her parents playing Strip THE CAST Jack Naked. And while Debbie is getting a lot of and sunburnt and hungry, Debbie and Sue decide CLAUDIA KARVAN: notice at school, her father Martin has noticed the Judy Vickers they’d like to try surfing themselves. But that’s the attractive newcomer at work. gang’s number one rule: Girls Don’t Surf. JEREMY LINDSAY TAYLOR: EPISODE THREE Martin Vickers EPISODE SIX ASHLEIGH CUMMINGS: Cheryl sets out the rigid Greenhills rules for Debbie Deborah (Debbie) Vickers While Gary’s mum Yvonne tries to win her grieving and Sue: root their boyfriends too soon and they’re ED OXENBOULD: husband back, Judy and Martin are at marriage molls, wait too long and they’ll get dropped. But David Vickers guidance counselling trying to sort out their prob- she doesn’t waste much time before she breaks SUSIE PORTER: lems. Things aren’t going smoothly for Sue either, those rules herself, getting drunk on Brandivino. Pam Knight who is worried Danny might drop her after she And while Debbie has difficulty losing her virginity, DAN WYLLIE: decides to become a ‘bra burner’. Debbie is thrilled Sue – who now has a surfie spunk of her own – has Roger Knight when she finally manages to lose her virginity, and no such trouble, although the experience is less Sue is thrilled when instead of dropping her, Danny BRENNA HARDING: than stellar. gives her the longed-for friendship ring. But the Susan (Sue) Knight celebrations are cut short and the night ends in dis- RODGER CORSER: EPISODE FOUR aster for one member of the Greenhills gang. Ferris Hennessy An impromptu party at Cheryl’s house leads to SUSAN PRIOR: EPISODE SEVEN disaster for Debbie when Bruce suddenly drops Yvonne Nolan her. But she’s not the only one: ace surfer Gary SEAN KEENAN: The Greenshills gang gather to bid farewell to one gets dropped too. Meanwhile, Gary’s dad Ferris is Gary Hennessy of the gang in a moving ocean ceremony, all except wining and dining his young lover and inviting friend KATIE WALL: the girls, who aren’t allowed on the beach. But they Roger to join him. But it’s Debbie’s mum Judy who Lynette Hayes are allowed at the wake, where Gary watches his smells a rat … or in this case, something fishy surfing hero shoot up. Meanwhile, Sue’s dad Roger CHARLOttE BEST: about a missing lobster that her husband Martin Cheryl Hayes is very tempted by a lucrative job offer in the city, fails to bring home. but her mother Pam is not sure they should leave ISABELLE CORNISH: Vicki their beloved Cronulla behind. EPISODE FIVE REEF IRELAND: Bruce Board EPISODE EIGHT After a fight with her mum, Cheryl decamps to DYLAN GOODEARL: Danny 2012 © ATOM SCREEN EDUCATION Debbie’s house for a while and proves an unwel- Dixon Debbie and Sue’s disenchantment with the gang come guest to everyone, except David. He’s falling JACK HORSLEY: Straccy snowballs when the boys gang up on Frieda the in love. Gary and Debbie are growing closer, too, moll. Their defiance looks set to see them rel- TYLER ATKINS: but his father Ferris is distraught when his affair egated back to the front of the school bus. And Darren Peters folds. Debbie is unaware of the growing strain in while Debbie’s parents – Judy and Martin – finally her parents’ relationship, but Gary is acutely aware manage to overcome their differences, the girls of his. Meanwhile, the girls are getting bored wait- Above: Ashleigh Cummings, reject the gang’s brutal rules and fulfil their dream Producer Imogen Banks, ing on the beach, watching the boys surf. Tired Brenna Harding of surfing the waves themselves. 3 1 KEY CONCEPTS/THEMES Puberty Blues is a sound work of drama and ex- plores a range of thematic concerns closely linked to relationships and belonging, including: • The importance of acceptance to feelings of belonging and self-esteem • The value of true friendship • The impact of cultural change on the lives of individuals • The complexity of familial relationships 2 • The pain of social rejection • Social deviancy • Social acceptance of sexual harassment The Value of True Friendship • Growing up/rites of passage I think we By the end of the series, Debbie and Sue come The Importance of Acceptance should try to the realisation that image without substance to Feelings of Belonging and to hang doesn’t make for good friendships. Despite a fear Self-esteem of being single, Sue ‘drops’ Danny because the with the relationship is entirely unsatisfying, existing only Although Debbie and Sue are accepted by each to serve Danny’s sexual appetites. Debbie also other, both girls are bright and long for the social Greenhills realises that the Greenhills gang contributes to challenge of joining the most popular group of boredom and wasted time and both girls are tired their neighbourhood. The girls, particularly Debbie, gang again. of sitting on the beach waiting to respond to the believe that they want to be part of the Greenhills – Debbie boys’ demands for food and sex. Fed up with gang, however they are quickly disillusioned and boredom and sexism, the girls return to finding discontent upon joining the gang because it fails fulfilment in their own friendship and seek social to offer the girls the warmth and transparency that empowerment through surfing – the forbidden fruit their own friendship does. Rather, acceptance into of girls who belong to the Greenhills gang. The the group provides a boost to the girls’ self-esteem girls liberate themselves from the gang by flaunt- as they have moved up the social ladder and now ing their surfboard in front of the gang and head- have social access to boys they would never have ing into the waves unconcerned by the taunts and had the confidence to talk to if they weren’t part mockery of their less loyal ‘friends’ on the beach. of Greenhills. Upon entering the gang the girls are It is the friendship between Debbie and Sue that faced with another hoop through which they must proves most valuable to their survival as teens and jump: they need to obtain a ‘friendship ring,’ from demonstrates safe refuge, even at its most frail. one of the boys to prove that they’re more than just The girls value their friendship more by the end of a fleeting fancy. the series, feeling confident to extend the strength of their friendship to Frieda (Eleanor Munro) by Similarly, acceptance is important to the adults, defending her against the sexual harassment of the with Sue’s mother Pam finding acceptance in the Greenhills boys. Shire, causing her to resist a move to North Sydney for Roger’s work as she feels she wouldn’t fit in Quotes socially outside of the Shire. 2012 © ATOM SCREEN EDUCATION You’ve spent Monday to Friday in each other’s Quotes company and then called each other every night… – Judy, Episode 2 I think we should try to hang with the Greenhills gang again. – Debbie, Episode 2 Frieda doesn’t have anyone. – Debbie 1: Director Glendyn Ivin You ain’t nothing till you get a friendship ring. 2: Director Emma Freeman, Maybe she has us. – Sue, Episode 8 Ashleigh Cummings, – Cheryl, Episode 3 Brenna Harding 4 2 to Yvonne throughout the series and eventually leaves the family without so much as a note.