The Liverpool Royal Court and the National Theatre’s adaptation of Boys from the Blackstuff is an ambitious and bold take on Alan Bleasdale’s seminal 1982 TV series, rooted in the struggle of endemic unemployment in 1980s Liverpool.
The city docks, once the lifeblood of the city’s economy, have largely fallen silent and, coupled with factory closures, the enormity of the job losses in Thatcher’s Britain has become too much to bear. Proud working men are now forced to stand in line at the Department for Employment for a pittance of a handout and seek cash-in-hand jobs here and there to feed their families.
Here we meet Chrissie (George Caple), Loggo (Jurell Carter), Yosser (Jay Johnson), George (Ged McKenna), Dixie (Mark Womack) and Snowy (Reiss Barber) squaring up against the establishment and facing down poverty with a distinctive wit that’s as biting as the breeze that's blowing in off the Mersey.
The social commentary is as relevant today as it was 40 years ago, the demonisation of benefit claimants and the cost of living, the futility of working just to survive and the North-South divide sadly, all too familiar—seemingly irrespective of the party in power at the time.
Johnson’s Yosser is a proud man who is rapidly descending into desperation, who, at times, sinks into Harry Enfield caricature in the beginning, complete with Souness moustache. However, as the character’s already precarious mental health declines, this is where he comes into his own. Yosser is looking for a fight—or a job, whichever comes first—and the tragedy that’s unfolding before us weighs heavy. This loss is greater than just a job ("I can do that! Gizza job!)—this man is isolated, poverty-stricken and wracked by the loss of not only his livelihood but his family too.
The action is punctuated by the cast breaking into folk and protest songs from the era, seamlessly amplifying the sense of the struggle building to something bigger, a sea change that might somehow call time on the class divide. Dyfan Jones’s choice of music and sound design also plays pivotal role, with the ambient noises of a fading industrial city evoking the sense of place and time.
Amy Jane Cook’s set design creates a haunting backdrop: the looming cranes, now silent, the corrugated iron of the docks and building sites, the back-to-back terraces, the ripples of the Mersey and the driving rain.
Every single member of the cast puts in an utterly absorbing performance, with elements of physical theatre representing the movement of the dockers, complete with illuminated crates, and the slow-motion riot scenes. A particular nod, however, goes to Sian Polhill Thomas whose Ms Sutcliffe at the dole office absolutely nails the ‘posh Scouse’ telephone voice I heard my grandma use on so many occasions.
While the play is about the struggle, there are glimmers of hope too. Chrissie’s (George Caple) mates may be gone, but there’s always the comfort of your roots, the community you know and love, to hold you, whatever might be next.
Boys from the Blackstuff is at Cheltenham until Saturday 12 April, before the tour continues on to Derby.