The Power of Yes

'A dramatist seeks to understand the financial crisis.' The subtitle of David Hare's new play reveals its limits. After two hours of this barely staged three-year chronology, you might wish that dramatist had sought to dramatise it once he'd understood it. There's a no-frills openness about Hare's presentation which is refreshing - The Author is played onstage by Hare-alike Anthony Calf, who makes the most of his limited emotional opportunities in what is essentially a series of three-minute reconstructed interviews with capitalists and their critics. Hare has had great access to key people and it's fascinating to hear snippets, via the actors who impersonate them, from the likes of George Soros, Jon Cruddas MP and the Chair of the FSA. You're unusually free to concentrate on the details of their arguments. But theatrically, there's no escaping the fact that this is a two-hour lecture from a lot of men in suits.