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'll probably understand a lot more about the credit crunch. But, especially with 'Enron' making its flamboyant way to the West End, you might wish that the dramatist had prioritised dramatising over understanding.

There is a no-frills openness about 'The Power of Yes' which is refreshing. The Author is embodied onstage by the floppy-fringed 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. Clarity is the priority. 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.

Two female characters - an FT journalist and an ex-Lehman Brothers employee - bring a livelier energy to their interviews with The Author. But too often this is dead from the neck down. Such a lot of ground is covered that it rarely advances from reconstruction to biting investigation. The format - of an inexpert celebrity going on a 'journey' of documentary discovery - is a borderline hubristic TV cliché. The cast list (which includes Malcolm Sinclair and Richard Cordery) is a roll call of underused talent. And Angus Jackson's production, whose many entrances and exits take place underneath a woefully underused video screen, is dull on the eye. There's a great article or documentary in this copious material, but it's hard to see what makes it specially suited for the stage.