Review: Boys From The Blackstuff’s message remains all too relevant

The great producer Bill Kenwright had long dreamt of reviving Alan Bleasdale’s Boys from the Blackstuff and it’s poignant it’s only now been realised on the stage of the National within months of his death and that of Bernard Hill, the actor who immortalised Yosser Hughes in the iconic 1980s television series. From the heavens, I do, however, believe I can hear these two gents applauding Kate Wasserberg’s production.

As Yosser, Barry Sloane looks very much like Hill – a big, proud, lumbering man who yearns only for a job – and there are moments of almost unbearable pathos in his performance as he chases after milkmen and gas meter readers asking him to “gissa job.” The other great sadness I felt seeing Yosser brought alive again is that, all these years on, there remains an underclass in our country who are not given the same opportunities as others who have come from more moneyed backgrounds.

Bleasdale’s message is that all people have potential and it’s not just a cruel but a stupid society that denies anyone from achieving theirs. It is never a hectoring piece, however, and there are some nice comedic touches.

Rightly, the adaptor James Graham hasn’t played around all that much with Bleasdale original script. I liked especially the moment when Yosser, giving his confession to a priest (Dominic Carter) who identifies himself as Dan, and says, “I’m desperate, Dan.”

The production has great looks – and moments of real theatrical magic thanks to Amy Jane Cook’s set and costume design – and she conjures up a real sense of Liverpool in the ‘80s. In any progressive society, Boys from the Blackstuff should, all these years on, have the feeling of a quaint museum piece that would mean nothing to younger theatregoers, but, of course, it’s fundamental message remains all too relevant.

The show transfers to the Garrick Theatre in the West End from June 13 to August 3, but, given it is in many respects such a love letter to Liverpool, I should acknowledge, too, that Liverpool’s Royal Court theatre under Kevin Fearon were the original producers and commissioners of the work, in association with Bill Kenwright, who also of course hailed from that great city.

Playing now at the National Theatre in London and then transferring to the Garrick Theatre in London from June 13 to August 3.