THE POWER OF YES
Lyttelton Theatre, Royal National Theatre, until March 7, 2010
DAVID Hare sets his stall out from the off: this is not a play, he tells the audience.
And although the actor playing David Hare – the late-drafted but impeccable Anthony Calf – then backtracks a little, conceding that this is, as billed, a dramatist’s attempt to understand the financial crisis, he then proceeds to give us high drama dressed up in documentary clothing.
I hate to gainsay a playwright of such standing, but there is little doubt that actually this is a play. And it’s one of some force.
There is a clear narrative drive in the on-stage author’s pursuit of the origins, outworkings and effects of the past 12 months’ chaos in the banking world. Hare’s interviews with key players – recorded the old-fashioned journalistic way, with notebook and pen – carry additional weight through being genuine quotations, and the enlightening perspective they offer on what happened, how it happened and just who was to blame is more than enough to compensate for the jargon and obfuscation of the sources.
There’s more than a journalist’s mind at work in the crafting of the piece, however, and Hare shows real clarity in his peeling back of the complexities, juxtaposing revealing remarks and outrageously arrogant views to make his barbed political observations.
It’s been compared unfavourably by some with Enron, Rupert Goold’s musical extravaganza of that doomed financial disaster. This is both unfair and inaccurate. Like is not compared with like. Hare sets out to get to grips with an immense density of information and misinformation, and succeeds with clarity and considerable dramatic effect.
The production serves him well, too, with Angus Jackson’s straightforward direction on Bob Crowley’s no-nonsense set helping to focus in on the issues without ever becoming stodgy in the uninterrupted two hours.
Calf holds the thing together superbly, ranging from mystification to righteous fury in a well-judged performance. The huge supporting cast of mainly men in suits offers a diverse range of opinions that steer the right side of political dogma. There are some lovely touches of humour from the safe hands of Jeff Rawle, Malcolm Sinclair and Richard Cordery, while Claire Price provides some welcome female input in the guise of a Financial Times journalist energising Hare’s conscience.
It’s invigorating, thought-provoking and argumentative, and it’s as stimulating a response to the financial crisis as you’re likely to find on either bank of the Thames.
Lyttelton Theatre, Royal National Theatre, until March 7, 2010
DAVID Hare sets his stall out from the off: this is not a play, he tells the audience.
And although the actor playing David Hare – the late-drafted but impeccable Anthony Calf – then backtracks a little, conceding that this is, as billed, a dramatist’s attempt to understand the financial crisis, he then proceeds to give us high drama dressed up in documentary clothing.
I hate to gainsay a playwright of such standing, but there is little doubt that actually this is a play. And it’s one of some force.
There is a clear narrative drive in the on-stage author’s pursuit of the origins, outworkings and effects of the past 12 months’ chaos in the banking world. Hare’s interviews with key players – recorded the old-fashioned journalistic way, with notebook and pen – carry additional weight through being genuine quotations, and the enlightening perspective they offer on what happened, how it happened and just who was to blame is more than enough to compensate for the jargon and obfuscation of the sources.
There’s more than a journalist’s mind at work in the crafting of the piece, however, and Hare shows real clarity in his peeling back of the complexities, juxtaposing revealing remarks and outrageously arrogant views to make his barbed political observations.
It’s been compared unfavourably by some with Enron, Rupert Goold’s musical extravaganza of that doomed financial disaster. This is both unfair and inaccurate. Like is not compared with like. Hare sets out to get to grips with an immense density of information and misinformation, and succeeds with clarity and considerable dramatic effect.
The production serves him well, too, with Angus Jackson’s straightforward direction on Bob Crowley’s no-nonsense set helping to focus in on the issues without ever becoming stodgy in the uninterrupted two hours.
Calf holds the thing together superbly, ranging from mystification to righteous fury in a well-judged performance. The huge supporting cast of mainly men in suits offers a diverse range of opinions that steer the right side of political dogma. There are some lovely touches of humour from the safe hands of Jeff Rawle, Malcolm Sinclair and Richard Cordery, while Claire Price provides some welcome female input in the guise of a Financial Times journalist energising Hare’s conscience.
It’s invigorating, thought-provoking and argumentative, and it’s as stimulating a response to the financial crisis as you’re likely to find on either bank of the Thames.
