The Power of Yes
National Theatre, London
Playwright David Hare is one of the giants of contemporary British theatre. His skill is to be the Balzacian social secretary who records the mood of the day – what used to be called the spirit of the times. Now, with The Power of Yes, he turns his eye on the current financial crisis and asks all the right questions: how did it happen and who was to blame?
The Power of Yes covers familiar ground: this is the story of bankers and investors, mortgage lenders and credit default swap merchants. Most of the characters are now well-known: Alan Greenspan, Myron Scholes, George Soros, and our very own Howard Davies, Adair Turner, Jon Cruddas and, of course, Gordon Brown.
Hare comes up with a work that uses a mixed bag of skills: there’s a lot of everyday journalism (interviews with the heavy hitters of global finance), plus a dash of drama (OK, it’s not a tragedy, but it does make a good story).
As in his previous play, The Permanent Way (2003), Hare has talked to the main players, this time the fat sharks of the financial world, and distilled his interviews into a series of scenes that illustrate the power of money, the illusion of prosperity and the almost unbelievable fact that, in his words, when “the banks went bust, capitalism was replaced by a socialism that bailed out the rich alone”.
Hare is a brilliant editor. Assembling his verbatim interview material into a coherent tale, he revisits well-known landmarks, from Wall Street to Threadneedle Street and from cheated homeowners in the United States to industrious savers in China. Look, there is Northern Rock. Oops, it’s gone. Look, there is Fred Goodwin. Oops, he’s off. And look, there’s Gordon Brown. And he’s still here.
The biggest laugh comes from the idea that the employees of Lehmann Brothers were not taking away their possessions in those large cardboard boxes, one of the iconic images of the past year, but looted foodstuffs from their canteen.
To humanise this slice of contemporary history, Hare puts himself into the show and the play is less about the actions of bad bankers than about the author’s attempts to put together his story. As played by Anthony Calf, Hare comes across as sincere, inquiring and not averse to laughing at himself.
One of the best jokes of the evening is about his dismissive attitude to theatre critics. His chief guide to the world financial system is Masa Serdarevic, the 23-year-old journalist who leads him – and us – into the nether regions of high finance.
Politically, The Power of Yes shows how “new” Labour out-Thatchered Margaret Thatcher in its support of the City, grabbing taxes from banks, but letting them do what they wanted. If everyone agrees that the market can do no wrong, then everyone is culpable when the market crashes. If Hare is right that the current crisis spells the death of the idea of market invincibility, there is nothing in his play that is optimistic about the future.
Angus Jackson’s production features a large cast and an equally large array of projections. Men in suits are rarely easy on the eye, but Jackson keeps them moving quickly. So what’s missing? For me, the main lack was any sense of urgency; I never felt angry that my life was now on the line. One of the symbolic images that flashed up was of the queues outside Northern Rock, yet the voices of such people were not invited to this party. Who will tell their story?
Aleks Sierz
