A dramatist seeks to understand the financial crisis. In retrospect is it fair to say that the idea that banks could manage risk was a total illusion? On 15 September 2008, capitalism came to a grinding halt. As sub-prime mortgages and toxic securities continued to dominate the headlines, this spring the National Theatre asked David Hare to write an urgent and immediate work to be staged this autumn that sought to find out what had happened, and why. Capitalism works when greed and fear are in the correct balance. This time they got out of balance. Too much greed, not enough fear. Meeting with many of the key players from the financial world, David Hare, author of The Permanent Way and Stuff Happens, has created The Power of Yes: a compelling narrative, as enlightening as it is entertaining. It’s like a ship which you’re being told is in apple-pie order, the decks are cleaned, the metal is burnished, the only thing nobody mentions: it’s being driven at full speed towards an iceberg. Not so much a play as a jaw-dropping account of how, as the banks went bust, capitalism was replaced by a socialism that bailed out the rich alone. Running time 1hr 45mins - no interval.
David Hare’s “urgent and immediate” response to the world economic meltdown, specially commissioned by the National Theatre, received its world premiere last night (6 October 2009, previews from 29 September). The Power of Yes, subtitled “A dramatist seeks to understand the financial crisis”, runs in rep in the NT Lyttelton, where it’s currently booking until 10 January 2010 (See News, 17 Jun 2009).
On 15 September 2008, capitalism came to a grinding halt. As sub-prime mortgages and toxic securities continued to dominate the headlines, last spring NT artistic director Nicholas Hytner asked Hare to respond with a play that sought to find out what had happened, and why. The resulting piece is based on interviews with key financial figures, including George Soros, as well as journalists, academics, politicians and regulatory officials.
Including The Power of Yes, David Hare has premiered 15 original plays at the National to date, including Stuff Happens, The Permanent Way - both also based largely on interviews - Amy’s View, Skylight, The Secret Rapture, The Absence of War, Murmuring Judges, Racing Demon, Pravda (written with Howard Brenton), Plenty and last year’s Gethsemane.
Coming just a fortnight after the London opening of Enron, The Power of Yes was inevitably compared with Lucy Prebble’s play about that earlier financial collapse – and not always favourably - by overnight critics. While all appreciated Hare’s ability to “doggedly” ask “important questions” and “offer a clear, combative analysis of this mind-knotting, epoch-making mess”, many felt shortchanged by the evening’s lack of drama. Hare himself readily acknowledges that The Power of Yes is a story rather than a play; verdicts as to whether it succeeds as such seem to depend largely on one’s stance toward the validity of “theatre as journalism”.
Judi Herman on Whatsonstage.com (three stars) – “If anything, Hare tells two stories, both absorbing and indeed amounting less to a play (it’s fittingly subtitled ‘a dramatist seeks to understand the financial crisis’), more to reportage ... Anyone in the audience not in the world of finance ought to be instructed and shocked by turns as they make the journey to ‘enlightenment’ with the Author. Thanks to director Angus Jackson’s strategic marshalling of his superb cast of 20, the journey is almost physically invigorating as well as intellectually ... Hare’s version of the story ... ends with the sobering thought that the economic future of the world is down to China. If anyone comes out of The Power of Yes well, it is at one end of the scale the financier and philanthropist George Soros (a beautifully studied portrayal from Bruce Myers) and at the other the young Sarajevan researcher Masa Serdavic, the Author’s guide and amanuensis (a simple and ultimately affecting performance by Jemima Rooper), who came to this country and to the world of finance when her own world fell apart.”
Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph - “Few ask around quite so diligently or effectively as David Hare. If he wasn’t an award-winning playwright, he’d be an award-winning journalist ... When it comes to finding things out and telling us the way the world works, Hare is in a class of his own ... The play provides us with a great deal of hard information and expert explanation. As drama, however, it is hard going. There are so many facts and opinions, so many actors (a score of them) playing so many different real-life characters, that one’s brain sometimes threatens to go into the cerebral equivalent of financial meltdown. A distinguished cast do their best to bring a cast largely consisting of men in suits to individual life and Angus Jackson’s production is admirably lucid. But in the midst of all the debate and number-crunching I found myself longing for the dramatic bravura of Lucy Prebble’s Enron which turns financial calamity into thrilling theatre rather than a hectoring lecture.”
Michael Billington in the Guardian (four stars) – “The presence of Hare in the shape of a faintly perplexed, note-taking Anthony Calf is crucial to the story. At first we see him bombarded with advice as to how he should go about his business ... Spurning all this, Hare simply goes about doggedly asking questions ... And what does he learn? Firstly that the current crisis has complex origins ... This sounds technical stuff. But Hare brings it alive ... by asking the questions to which we all want to know the answers ... If Hare's story comes to a predictable end, it also takes us on an intriguing journey. It explains the causes of the financial crisis, gives flesh to theories, and introduces us to a vast gallery of characters. Angus Jackson's production stages the piece with great fluency and contains fine cameos ... Some will say this is theatre as journalism. But, if part of journalism's mission is to explain and inform, that seems to me a virtue. And what you gain, by seeing the piece performed, is a sense of Hare's mounting anger at the vanity, self-delusion and sheer incompetence in which the world of finance is steeped.”
Paul Taylor in the Independent (two stars) – “If there's an English dramatist who could be relied upon to offer a clear, combative analysis of this mind-knotting, epoch-making mess, it's the author of Stuff Happens and The Permanent Way. Pessimists will have spotted a faint potential flaw here. If our pre-eminent political dramatist had been gagging for this important gig, he'd surely have been down the line to Hytner first. They will also have noted that share prices in the project took a tumble this summer with the advent of rogue trader, Lucy Prebble, author of the uber-hit Enron, a play which seems to have cornered the market in flamboyant prescience and in the ability to explain the fiendish con-tricks of creative accountancy with dazzling theatrical immediacy. So where does leave The Power of Yes? Gazumped, bothered and bewildered? Not quite. But, in truth, it's looking a tad tardy and more than a mite dogged and dutiful ... This piece is not so much a play proper as an artfully arranged dramatisation of the research that could have led to one ... (Hare) has given us a sort of Everything You Wanted to Know About the Credit Crunch, But Were Afraid to Ask. It's honourable, lucid, tenacious, and a little dull.”
Henry Hitchings in the Evening Standard (three stars) – “A National Theatre should tackle national issues, and that is certainly what David Hare’s new play does, dutifully auditing the economic turmoil of the past two years ... Over the course of just under two hours we are treated to a procession of opinions ... All the while Hare asks questions — some naïve, others probing. The explanations are contradictory and complex, littered with references to arcane practices and their proponents ... Looking like a youthful version of Hare, Anthony Calf holds proceedings together confidently, and there is nice work throughout the company, with Jeff Rawle particularly engaging as a counsellor from the Citizens’ Advice Bureau ... The real problem is that it proves so diffuse. We feel we are on a whirlwind tour of the boulevards of finance; the byways are left unexplored. Characters are shunted onstage, prosaically introduced, then withdrawn. The drama lacks a true emotional centre and a decisive argumentative punch. Questions are raised, but not properly answered. Still, as one expects of David Hare, they are important questions.”
Benedict Nightingale in The Times (three stars) – “If David Hare’s new piece is compared unfavourably with Enron, it would be unfair yet fair. Unfair, because Lucy Prebble’s play transforms America’s worst corporate scandal into a vivid case study of greed, folly and deception, while The Power of Yes is conscientiously true to its subtitle, ‘a dramatist seeks to understand the financial crisis’ ... But the comparison is also fair, because one wishes that Hare had also given us a bit of human drama, adding (say) Adam Applegarth, who is accused of neglecting his job as Northern Rock supremo for a lady called Randy Mandy; or (better) Fred Goodwin ... Hare is careful not to parade his left-wing conscience, letting the capitalists ask questions of capitalism and only near the end bringing on a Citizens’ Advice Bureau chief to tell us of the impact on the poor. That’s self-denying. But then, as he gently admits, Hare keeps his own money in a Post Office account.”
“This isn’t a play. It’s a story” declares Anthony Calf’s Author to launch David Hare’s bid to get to grips with how the stuff of the world economic meltdown happened. If anything, Hare tells two stories, both absorbing and indeed amounting less to a play (it’s fittingly subtitled “a dramatist seeks to understand the financial crisis”), more to reportage. There’s the story of the crisis itself, and the story of his efforts to understand it as he engages with multi-national financiers, economists, academics, journalists – and even the man from the Citizens’ Advice Bureau, all real people, most well-known names.
In just under two hours they trace the complexities of this fall from grace of banks and bankers in ways that the self-confessed financially ignorant Author, who raises eyebrows when he admits to keeping his money in the Post Office, can understand. Which, of course, means that anyone in the audience not in the world of finance (and I suspect plenty at press night were taking time out from wheeling and dealing) ought to be instructed and shocked by turns as they make the journey to ‘enlightenment’ with the Author.
Thanks to director Angus Jackson’s strategic marshalling of his superb cast of 20, the journey is almost physically invigorating as well as intellectually. These men and women in monochrome suits march purposefully across the stage, at first all together to converge on the Author and then severally to engage with him one at a time in his quest .
It’s telling that they never interact with one another, merely swiftly and smoothly introducing the next player on the financial stage, an effective Brechtian device that keeps energy levels high. For these often arrogant and greedy money men (the three women are journalists and a researcher) are isolated by choice as much as circumstance, failing to connect with other people and ultimately with reality because of the single-mindedness that has become blinkered obsession with power and ‘the deal’.
The only colour comes from the witty digital surtitles and images on Bob Crowley’s bare set, which raises the biggest laugh of the evening (and this evening elicits plenty of knowing laughs) with an homage to the famous Andy Warhol Marilyn triptych featuring Fred Goodwin’s face.
Hare’s version of the story begins with the Black Scholes Equation for managing risk that too many traders thought was the Holy Grail and ends with the sobering thought that the economic future of the world is down to China. If anyone comes out of The Power of Yes well, it is at one end of the scale the financier and philanthropist George Soros (a beautifully studied portrayal from Bruce Myers) and at the other the young Sarajevan researcher Masa Serdavic, the Author’s guide and amanuensis (a simple and ultimately affecting performance by Jemima Rooper), who came to this country and to the world of finance when her own world fell apart.
I agree that it is interesting in parts, but in all honestly I was very disappointed by this even the staging seemed poor - Lost in France
03 Nov 09
As the review states, the opening line is "This isn't a play, it's a story". Unfortunately it isn't a story either, it has no plot or characterisation, and is played at one-note throughout. This is a TV documentary of talking heads without respite or levity. The excellent ensemble cast is wasted as there is no value to having this on a stage (as opposed to a newspaper). Come on NT, commission someone else to tackle these topics imaginatively, as David Hare's yearly "how can I write a play about this" is wearing very thin... - dgr1
28 Oct 09
This is a play which engages the viewer/listener more and more as it goes on. After the first few minutes, during which I was certain this was going to be ady-as-dust lecture, I was totally hooked - even if I didn't fully understand much of the complex economics. Hare's device of showing himself in the process of gathering information for the writing of the play is a very clever one, for it seems to put him on a par with the audience, who are also there to learn. The very simple staging and the projected backdrop add to the atmosphere of the lecture hall. I came away feeling that I know a little more about the complexities of the situation which led to economic meltdown, but hardly reassured about the capabilities of those who are seeking to put us back on track. A wholly excellent cast, led by Anthony Calf as the Author, coped admirably with a difficult text. Special mention should go to a charismatic Bruce Myers as George Soros - even if he did fluff his lines in a couple of places. - sc
27 Oct 09
The first words of The Power of Yes are, "This isn't a play" and the author is correct - it's verbatim theatre or a piece of dramatised investigative journalism. But because the subject matter is so important and is made compelling by a superb cast and pacy direction it's invigorating and sometimes even exciting and certainly stands comparison with the flashier Enron. Predictably Hare has identified the main "villains" as Alan Greenspan, George W Bush and the New Labour government, particularly Gordon Brown. He's probably right but it's a weakness that none are allowed to put their side of the story. Hare does not attempt to provide a definitive answer to the crisis or an alternative future model but this is an excellent piece of theatre. - David Baxter
27 Oct 09
Can I have 3.5 please? David Hare attempts to help us understand the credit crunch by staging 110 minutes of interviews with those that should know, from a 20-something Bosnian economics teacher through the head and former head of the FSA to George Soros and by-and-large he succeeds. It isn’t as sexy as Enron’s similar single issue story, and does occasionally become dull, but it some ways this served its subject better by not trivialising it. On a bare stage with just projections and a blackboard, the 20 actors effectively play 24 real life people. It’s all in the editing and construction of course, and as with earlier ‘verbatim’ pieces, Hare demonstrates he is a master. - Gareth James
23 Oct 09
Well, YES it isn't a play as such, but if you maintain your concentration, don't have a drink beforehand, and are prepared to listen then this is a very interesting "lecture" on what went wrong with the world's economy in 2007/2008. But for someone who is married to a very rich fashion designer and can best be described as a champagne socialist he seems to protest a little too much for his own good. As for his assertion that capitalism is dead, I am reminded of Mark Twain's remarks. Mr Hare's message, and perhaps not the one he intends, in this well constructed and informative piece of theatre is don't judge too harshly the sins of others, look at the beam.....etc. We all wanted the gravy train never to end. How many of us extended our mortgages, traded up to a bigger better flat or house and loaded up our credit cards? To simply bash the banks is absurd. Governments must take some responsibility, if for the only reason that they always want to take the credit when things are going "well". Banks began to employ Retailers as managing directors/chairmen, people who had no idea about banking but knew how to grow a business. Unfortunately they were let loose in the candy store, unrestrained, for too long and the results we will live with for years to come. A lesson from this that should go beyond the financial sector concerns hospitals. Should they be run by consultants, doctors and nurses rather than so called "administrators"? As I said Mr Hare is an interesting writer, perhaps he should turn his attention now to the NHS? - rds
18 Oct 09
This was surely a play that theatre land was waiting for. Yet somehow David Hare succeed on one level but also failed to deliver on another. "Not a play, but a story" he declared in the opening moments as the audience realises that once again they are watching Hare as himself albeit played by Hare lookalike Anthony Calf. Indeed Hare managed beautifully to explain the intricacies of the financial disaster with Hare asking the questions we all needed to ask. Where this was a disappointment was the staging. Yes it was simple – 20 actors walking on and off an all but bare stage to explain to the playwright what had happened. What I wanted to know was why I had paid the best part of £30 to hear something which could have been delivered just as well on radio. Indeed at many points in the play David Hare used a clichéd technique employed by lazy radio script writers in the form of simply introducing a speaker (and yes I do mean speaker) as “George Soros (or whoever) again”
That said, it was an entertaining evening. As Michael Billington highlighted in his review, David Hare introduced some lovely touches such as pointing out that those much photographed boxes Lehman Brothers (ex) employees were carrying out of the building contained nothing more significant than sandwiches and Milky Bars which their canteen credit cards still owed them. They were too upmarket to call it looting. Special mention though to Bob Crowley and the design team who invented some innovative effects to highlight the intracte problems of finance.
Does one expect more from theatre? No new playwright would have had this work staged yet if nothing else it does explain the financial crisis particularly well.
At the first night audience I spied ex-CBI chief Howard Davies sharing his thoughts with a small huddle. If one wanted to extend the journalism theme, perhaps a second half would have given him the right to reply.
- Nicky Barranger - www.theinterviewonline.co.uk
09 Oct 09
david hare has to compete with some excellent tv programmes that have been put out on this issue over the last 6 months. He managed to make a highly dramatic issue as dull as f*ck. We know most of this stuff anyway from reading the parers. He failed. State subsidised failure. Liked the Warhol image of Fred the Shred though. - Judy
08 Oct 09
Bereft of characterisation, drama and wit. A series of PowerPoint slides of already familiar facts. At one point the David Hare character asks a twenty-something who has worked in a bank for a bit "So you know all this already?" and she replies "Yes". The only clever aspect of the play's conclusion (that the banking bail out is "socialism for the rich") is having the gall to say it in a state subsidised theatre.
- Patronised theatre goer
07 Oct 09
The Power of Yes
At the start of the new David Hare play about the recent world financial crisis, it was explained that 'credit meant trust'. Given the playright's previous credits I thought it would be a worthwhile investment of £25 and trusted him to deliver an entertaining night out at the National Theatre. Sadly the value of your investments can go down as well as up.
All summer the hype was that David Hare was writing a new play and would bring us his take on what had gone wrong with the banks. At some point during his research he must have realised that in the time allowed it was going to be too much to deliver 'a new play', so all we were treated to was 'a story', a parade of talking heads representing some of those involved, giving their version of what happened - in effect Hare's research notes. There was nothing new, nothing that hadn't been dissected and discussed in the newspapers and in the current crop of tv documentaries.
So bland were these characters that everytime they walked on another actor announced who they were, even if they had appeared several times already. No light, no shade, and as one woman observed on leaving the theatre 'not very dramatic' - an understatement if ever there was one. At first I thought it was just a device to set up the main players but it began to dawn after 10 minutes that we were in for two hours of what amounted to little more than a lecture - with no interval. Perhaps they feared how many might not return. One man in my row was asleep and a friend also admitted to 'just listening' so she closed her eyes too.
Perhaps, having recently been dazzled by the superb production of Lucy Prebble's Enron, with its fabulous imagery and taut script bringing to life an astonishing scandal, I was expecting too much, however, to witness such NT stalwarts as Paul Freeman, Simon Williams, Jeff Rawle and Anthony Calf merely recounting a string of events seemed a waste. They could, no doubt, identify with some of the bankers they were portraying, as it was indeed, money for old rope for people with their talents.
I considered going back to the theatre to queue, a la Northern Rock, to see if I could get the two hours of my life back, but applying my mantra of 'your first loss is your best loss' decided it wasn't worth it. Perhaps David Hare should remember that adage when next asked to write a play - if he can't deliver say so up front, so in these cash-conscious times we can choose our investments in theatre tickets wisely. The Power of Yes - Just Say No!
- Frequent theatre goer
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