They've stripped away and stolen but I won't take a thing. I'm here. I'm strong. Lean on me.
Tommy’s just been laid off but Dean’s got a plan to make big money. When it’s every man for themselves what’s more important, legality or ethics? When there’s not enough to go around, who deserves the scraps? And is Brenda really so wrong for wanting a decent vacuum and two weeks in Butlins?
This is a play about money, and who’s really doing the hard graft.
When recession hits, art always has two choices: offer escapism, or hold a mirror up to the here and now of what is happening in society. That is what Dig does, much in the same way Alan Bleasdale did for the Thatcher years with Boys From The Blackstuff, albeit less savagely, but with the same smattering of gallows humour.
Politicians talk about the need to "get Britain back to work", but it takes a small masterpiece like this latest play by Katie Douglas – presented in a 45-minute lunchtime co-production by Play, Pie and Pint and Paines Plough – to dig below the surface of the words, into the infinite layers of pain that ripple outward from a man abruptly bereft, by forces far beyond his control, of his key role as family provider.
As it builds to its powerful conclusion, Dig deftly uncovers the emotions which lie hidden beneath the surface of our everyday lives; and the hope which can often be found growing there.
This exploration of the emotional effects of an economic climate where job security is a fantasy asks tough questions, and asks them very well.
A perfectly crafted short, in which your perceptions of the three characters on stage are built up and toyed with as you come to empathise with each in turn. Yet it leaves you knowing that, somehow, there will be a way forward.
There may be nothing revelatory about Douglas’ work, no formula to magic away the recession, but the note on which the play ends is a heart-felt refresher course on the importance of love and redemption. Expect some tears.
A Play, a Pie and a Pint, Glasgow from Monday October 3, 2011, until Saturday October 8, 2011. More info: http://playpiepint.com
Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh from Tuesday October 11, 2011, until Saturday October 15, 2011. More info: www.traverse.co.uk