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SPOTLIGHT on “THE POWER OF YES”
by David Hare
A United Players production
making its Canadian Premiere
at Jericho Arts Centre,
September 3 to 26, 2010
Director’s Insights * The Staging * The Company * The Playwright
INTRODUCTION – A CANADIAN PREMIERE
“If you want to understand the banking crisis you should go to the theatre”
[Independent]
On 15 September 2008, capitalism came to a grinding halt. In the wake of the financial crisis, the National Theatre commissioned David Hare to write an urgent and immediate work that sought to find out what had happened, and why. The Power of Yes is the result.
Meeting with many of the key players from the financial world, David Hare has created a compelling narrative, as enlightening as it is entertaining. Hare takes us on a fascinating journey to discover the causes of the financial crisis, asking questions we all want to know the answer to and gives flesh to a rogues’ gallery of characters.
The Power of Yes is 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.
A huge hit in England and around the globe, The Power of Yes makes its Canadian debut in this United Players production.
Some thought-provoking quotes from the play:
Capitalism works when greed and fear are in the correct balance. This time they got
out of balance. Too much greed, not enough fear.
In retrospect is it fair to say that the idea that banks could manage risk was a total illusion?
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.
WHAT THE CRITICS SAY
5 STARS
'Devastating... a mesmerising dramatisation' Daily Mail
4 STARS
‘‘Engrossing... Asks questions to which we all want to know the answers.' Guardian
‘A passionate political documentary' Evening Standard
'Riveting... an exhilarating lecture on the banking crisis.' Sunday Times
'If you want to understand the banking crisis, you should go to the theatre' Independent
DIRECTOR ADAM HENDERSON: INSIGHTS INTO THE PRODUCTION
The Power of Yes is about the three to four days in which capitalism ceased to function. Because we live in a capitalist society, we believe that system is best; that it would never hurt anyone. But, in general, we are ignorant about the workings of finance. It is a system that seems intentionally made complex and Hare tries to make it easy to understand. Seeing this play works very much to our benefit; it is important to have some understanding because it is going to affect our children and children’s children.
Hare was commissioned to write the play in a hurry and the style he uses is called “verbatim theatre.” Rather than imagining what people say, he went out and asked them and wrote it down. In The Power of Yes the action is made up of actual interviews with the movers and shakers in the financial world at that time of crisis. Hare presents the characters as themselves and the dialogue verbatim. He positions himself as the central character – an author in search of play. He does a journalist’s job, documenting world-changing, epoch-making events. He plays the line between art and journalism. If Hare wasn’t so smart, it might not work.
For Hare, the drama is in the truth. Every audience member should have a different reaction, and Hare writes to have the audience make up their own minds. Personally, during the rehearsal process I was having trouble remaining dispassionate. The central characters in Hare’s plays tend to be dissenters who have to come to terms with the cost of holding a dissenting point of view. Dissention comes at great personal cost.
The Power of Yes is an opportunity to have the wealthiest people in the world come and explain the crime of the century. Hare tries to find out if any of them feels remorse. To find out if anyone says they’re sorry, you’ll have to come and watch.
ABOUT THE STAGING
There are no stage directions with the script for this play and as a director, Adam Henderson’s job is to take different material and find the drama in it. “It is in the ordering of the quotations,” he explains.
Adam uses visual metaphor to illuminate the very serious material of this play by setting the style as a “cartoon docudrama”. He engaged Grahame Arnould, editorial cartoonist for The Georgia Straight, to create a graffiti backdrop that the actors will execute in performance. “We are doing a play about trillions of dollars with hardly any dollars - with paper and sticky tape,” Adam laughs. "The set is entirely made out of paper, a pretty obvious metaphor for the financial world which is built out of paper.”
The musical score is very 2008 – a cut up techno-based score plus live sound effects. They use very Brecht-like techniques, keeping the focus on the social message: that people should pay attention.
The company is a mix of seasoned and upcoming professionals, several fresh out of Vancouver Film School. Bill Devine who plays the journalist is the artistic director of Sea Theatre and a meticulous artist; it is a rare opportunity to see him act. Established actor Jason Logan plays George Soros, one of the wealthiest men in the world.
THE COMPANY
The Power of Yes stars Bill Devine as The Author, with Luke Day, James Gill, John Harris, Godfrey Levy, Jason Logan, Helen Martin, John-David Papp, Dick Pugh, Marisa Smith, Patrick Spencer, and Stephen Street. It is directed by Adam Henderson, technical direction by Kyla Gardiner, set design by Ana-Luisa Espinoza, lighting design by Jeff Hitchcock, costume design by Kenda Ward, sound design by Dave Campbell, with production/stage management by Nancy Caldwell.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
David Hare is a fascinating playwright, truly current and prolific. He has the ability to present the variety of life and not narrow it down. He is deeply interested in what people really do and he creates wonderfully interesting conversations. Hare doesn’t take sides, he simply presents the arguments, and drama is the form that allows him to do this without making judgements. The action can be taken on face value, but in Hare’s plays everything is mirrored by the language and the script’s rhythms, and often by what is not said.
Hare is constantly playing with the boundary between documentary and fiction. In his recent plays he seems to be exploring the question of whether fiction has any validity, because it really isn’t true. The Power of Yes is not fiction. It is dramatically ordered verbatim interviews with real people that tell the story of a real life series of events that impacted the entire globe.
THE PLAYWRIGHT - SIR DAVID HARE
Sir David Hare is an English playwright and theatre and film director. Born in 1947, Hare was educated at Cambridge University. He worked with the Portable Theatre Company from 1968 to 1971 and his first play, Slag, made its London debut in 1970. Hare was Resident Dramatist at both the Royal Court Theatre and Nottingham Playhouse before co-founding Joint Stock Theatre Group with David Aukin and Max Stafford-Clark in 1975. In 1977 he held a US/UK Bicentennial Fellowship and he has been Associate Director of the National Theatre since 1984. Hare was knighted in 1998 and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Hare’s most recent works are the plays, Gethsemane (2008) and The Vertical Hour (2006) and the screenplay for the film of The Corrections, based on the novel by Jonathan Franzen. Other recent plays include Stuff Happens (2005), The Permanent Way (2003), The Breath of Life (2002), and My Zinc Bed, (2000). Hare’s film work includes the screenplay for Plenty (1985). He also wrote and directed the films Wetherby (1985), Paris by Night (1988) and Strapless (1989). His book, Obedience, Struggle and Revolt (2005), is a collection of lectures about politics and art.
United Players staged David Hare’s The Vertical Hour and The Breath of Life in their2009/10 season.
BOOK YOUR TICKETS FOR “THE POWER OF YES” NOW!
At the Jericho Arts Centre - 1675 Discovery
September 3 to 26, 2010
Thursday through Sunday, at 8 pm
Single Tickets: $14 - $18;
Season Tickets also on Sale: $60 - $80
Preview: Thursday September 2nd - tickets $8.
Talk back session after the show - Thursday September 9th
TICKETS: Click here to order online or call 604 224 8007, ext. 2
2010 - 2011 Season Tickets. SUBCRIBE NOW! Click here to order.
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