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"David Hare's brilliant docudrama about the state of Britain's railways . . . provides a gripping account of what has gone wrong since privatization . . . ["The Permanent Way"] captures the greedy, shoddy spirit of our times with devastating clarity, but its portrait of individuals, particularly the survivors of rail crashes and those left bereaved by them, is . . . deeply moving." --Charles Spencer, "The Daily Telegraph "(London)
"Fascinating and affecting . . . "The Permanent Way "is . . . animated journalism, and riveting as such." --Alastair Macaulay, "The Financial Times "(London)
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
In 1991, before an election they did not expect to win, the Conservative government made a fateful decision to privatize the railways. As a result, the taxpayer subsidizes rail more lavishly then ever before. In The Permanent Way, David Hare, working with actors from the Out of Joint Company, tells the intricate, madcap story of a dream gone sour, by gathering together the first-hand accounts of those most intimately involved - from every level of the system.
'A drama that stirs indignation and pity in equal measure, political theatre that transcends the old conflicts between Right and Left to condemn the whole mindset and attitudes of those allegedly running our nation's affairs. It is, by a mile, the most significant and revealing new play of the year. If you want to understand why Britain isn't working, you need to see The Permanent Way.' Daily Telegraph
'A compelling, fast-moving and astringently witty collage of first-hand testimonies and conflicting points of view... The picture that emerges with great force from these vivid, eloquently juxtaposed vignettes is of a debased culture that sets less store by the expertise that comes from intimate knowledge of a subject than by vacuous so-called management skills.' Independent
'A vitally necessary piece of theatre.' Guardian
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Strangely enough though, this isn't the first time I've seen it -- I watched it a year ago when it first opened, and though I found it chilling then, it didn't quite effect me in the same way. I think it may have something to do with the fact that last time I saw it in a much larger theatre, and from much further back, this time however I was in the front row, so close that I could see the tears on the face of the woman talking about her dead son. A surreal experience in itself because I know the actress who played that woman, and to see someone you know break down for reasons that don't belong to them, to see completely beyond that person and only think of them as a character is an extremely odd feeling, chilling in a way I cannot ever describe.
Everything about this play is just incredible, the way it is structured, the subtle references to the fact that they are real people's words, speaking to the playwrite, the way the audience's sympathies are manipulated in such a way that you cannot leave with a clear understanding of "well they were the bad guys". There is no resolution. And it works. Chillingly, hauntingly, maybe. But it works.
The use of projection in it is also amazing, the sheer impersonality of the platform boards which flip over to show the trains that never reached their destinations. And the scene with the Hatfield crash, when the Mother I mentioned earlier is still talking about the campaign of the bereaved, and you hear the sound of the train approaching and the actors are still speaking, and she is having to shout to be heard, a repeating mantra of words and then the projection screen bursts into life. A scene so intense that you want to scream, scratch off your own skin, just to take away from it, to make it stop.
A part of you is left behind then.
This is a play that will break your heart. If you get the chance to see it, do. If you can only buy it to read, do that instead. It will change you.
Where are the American equivelants of this kind of drama, we sorely need them?
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