It’s too glib to simply give this a theatrical review. Yes, it’s well-acted, well-lit, commitment and emotion running through the production from top to bottom, but to thoughtlessly term it ‘entertainment’ would be to miss the point entirely.
Roughly eight years after a financial crash laid bare the clandestine, labyrinthine world of modern finance, providing a golden, once-in-a-generation opportunity to reform the rotting edifice, the film ‘I Daniel Blake’ was released, illustrating by how far this opportunity had been missed. Mysteriously, by 2016, many of the architects of the 2008 disaster were somehow richer than they’d ever been. Clearly there was still wealth-a-go-go in the country; it just kept winding up in the same pockets while ‘austerity’ persisted unabated, resulting in cuts-a-go-go to public services, the NHS and the largest disparity ever between an average worker’s pay and that of senior executives. Not to mention an explosion in the number of foodbanks in the UK. At least, at that point, the feeling was things couldn’t get any worse…
By December 2019, despite further deterioration in the fabric and structure of a country that had so successfully hosted the Olympic Games in 2012 the electorate – bafflingly – chose to heed the slogans and quotes trundled out by government ministers and MP’s, some of which are tonight displayed above the action. Take a bow Lee Anderson, Boris Johnson, Theresa May, Therese Coffey, Damian Greene, David Cameron, George Osborne. Apologies to anyone I missed out. And characters up and down the land like Daniel Blake are relentlessly caught in an Orwellian, Kafka-esque nightmare attempting to deal with a bureaucracy that specialises in putting resolutions just out of reach, placing them in an app or online that many still can’t access. Or in Katie’s case offering a housing solution 285 miles away from her family.
It’s a triumph of 2023 that this brilliant production tells the story so accurately, even with some humour. It’s a tragedy of 2023 that it’s still relevant but confined to (presumably educated, socially conscious) audiences in theatres like The Traverse; this should be, really needs to be, next door at The Lyceum. Or The Festival or Playhouse. Given the success of the film and this production the seats would surely be filled?
We’ll leave the last words to director Mark Calvert, here’s hoping he doesn’t object to these being taken from the programme; ‘I can tell you this is not fiction… audiences should feel angry and outraged; I know I am.’
Reviewer: Roger Jacobs
Reviewed: 17th October 2023
North West End UK Rating: