Boys from the Blackstuff at the National Theatre

Over 40 years after Alan Bleasdale’s landmark polemic against Thatcherism debuted, Boys from the Blackstuff is back for a limited run at the National Theatre. Adapted by James Graham and directed by Kate Wasserberg, the Liverpool-set drama sees the titular boys – a quintet of labourers – navigate unemployment and the ensuing penury of Thatcher’s Britain. All the while, they’re being monitored by authorities from the Department of Employment. These are the sniffers, as the boys call them, though “class traitor” is the appellation they ultimately settle on. As soon becomes evident, the misery of the unemployed is a lucrative business, with the sniffers revelling gleefully in capturing so-called benefit cheats.

The most socially conscious of the boys, Snowy (George Caple) laments the death of socialism, a sentiment echoed by his father, George (a magnetic Philip Whitchurch). As Snowy points out, the 1960s were an era of hope, and people were unafraid of embracing socialist values. Likewise, the post-war governments implemented more altruistic policies, namely the formation of the welfare state, due to a fear of socialism, in stark contrast to the subterfuge of the sniffers. But the tragic Snowy and ailing, elderly George also symbolise the death of socialism. Meanwhile, Yosser (Barry Sloane), a man slowly losing his mind due to unemployment, serves as a portent of a society edging ever closer to individualism, or at least the phantasm of individual identity that capitalism purports to represent. Hope, George repeatedly emphasises, is what the working class must hold dear.

Through stark set pieces, Yosser reaches the depths of despair and seeks refuge in a church, engulfed in darkness save for the glimmer of hope offered by an illuminated rooftop. Could this be the hope to which George so often alludes, and desperately clings onto? “I can’t believe there’s no hope,” he later bemoans as his body succumbs to its increasing fragility. Thanks to captivating performances by the ensemble cast and mesmerising set orchestration, such scenes are heartrending without being maudlin.

Though very much a product of its time, many of the themes remain as pertinent today as they were when the scourge of neoliberalism first reared its head some four decades earlier. The 80s were an era in which unions were systematically dismantled, and from which we still suffer the ramifications. Likewise, in place of the sniffers are DWP assessors who have been awarded greater powers to penalise benefit claimants. Moreover, the fact that those in power no longer fear socialism, as Snowy points out, has only enabled them to become more brazen in their attacks on the working class. A warning from a not-too-distant history, Boys from the Blackstuff is a powerful lesson in how the landscape of modern-day Britain came to be.

Antonia Georgiou
Images: Alastair Muir

Boys from the Blackstuff is at the National Theatre until 8^th June 2024 and at the Garrick Theatre from 13^th June to 3^rd August 2024. For further information or to book visit the theatre’s website here.

Watch the trailer for Boys from the Blackstuff here: