Boys From The Blackstuff At The Rep

Boys From The Blackstuff was one of the most important television events of the 1980’s. I was a young child in 1982 when it was first shown, but I can still remember people saying ‘I can do that, gizza job’, in the inimitable style of the most famous character, Yosser Hughes. Now all the power, brutality and humour of the original Alan Bleasdale script has been transformed into a piece of theatre by James Graham that has you crying in despair one minute, and laughing out loud the next. I saw it at The Rep, Birmingham, last night and can testify it is a masterpiece.

Chrissie, Loggo, George, Dixie and Yosser are more than just workmates, they’re true friends too, living a shared experience in early 1980’s Liverpool. But after losing their tarmacking job where they worked with the ‘blackstuff’, they are forced to take desperate measures to keep themselves afloat, claiming their dole, working cash in hand jobs and trying to avoid the ‘sniffers’ just looking for those who fiddle the system. After the accidental of Snowy, an idealistic workmate, whilst trying to escape a sniffer, their lives divert in different directions which take in illness, debt, poverty and, in Yosser’s case, true madness.

The casting is absolutely perfect. Jay Johnson is as standout as Yosser, the true definition of a tragicomic role. You laugh with Yosser (Graeme Souness, Magnum is particularly hilarious), but also cry as the tragedy of his life unfolds. Ged Kenna as George and George Cappel as Chrissie give the play it’s heart and conscience, whilst Jurell Carter as Loggo offers some hope as he moves on to find work. Mark Womack completes the central cast as Dixie, giving a sensitive performance of a thoroughly decent man brought down by no fault of his own.

Boys From The Blackstuff keeps all the elements that made the original series so compelling. At times it is hilarious, totally laugh out loud funny, but the next minute you can be shocked by the bleakness of the lives as portrayed on the breadline. It shows just how far people can fall when all their hope is gone, and you only have your principles left.

The staging is incredible, the set totally conveys the feeling of the building site, the docks and the employment office. The use of working songs that the cast sing throughout work almost like sea shanties, and give proceedings a feeling of better times now lost.

Boys From The Blackstuff is an awe inspiring achievement in modern theatre. Not to be missed.

Birmingham Rep until 22nd March.

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