The Power of Yes
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United Kingdom
| The Power of Yes | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Written by | David Hare |
| Directed by | Angus Jackson |
| Date premiered | 6 October 2009 – 18 April 2010 |
| Place premiered | Lyttelton Theatre, London, United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| Subject | 2008 financial crisis |
| Genre | Drama |
| (defunct) Official site | |
The Power of Yes is a 2009 play by English playwright David Hare. It is based on Hare's attempts to understand the 2008 financial crisis.
The play centers on an unnamed main character, a stand-in for Hare, as he conducts a series of interviews to learn about the events leading up to the 2008 financial crisis. Some of the characters in the play are based on real people, such as Myron Scholes or David Freud, who played a key role in the 2008 financial crisis, whereas others portray a particular occupation as a whole, such as banker or journalist.[1][2]
According to The British Theatre Guide, the main message of the play is one of "wilful [sic] neglect by those charged with protecting innocent investors [...] In fact, [they] completely failed to accept that they have done anything wrong and that is the real problem."[3] Paul Stuart of the World Socialist Web Site writes that "Hare is nevertheless able to point to the deeper-going systemic nature of the economic crisis, and its political implications," and "I was not the only person who came away from the National Theatre with a profound sense that the entire ruling elite is rotten to the core, indifferent to the social suffering they have produced, and should not be allowed any form of control over society’s wealth."[4]
Production History
Following the 2008 financial crisis, the National Theatre commissioned Hare to create a play about the crisis. Hare stated that his goal in writing the play was for the "immediate response [to] be journalistic," though he was much less concerned with the accuracy of its depiction or whether "its diagnosis was or wasn’t correct."[5] He says he initially didn't want to write the play, committing only to a "perhaps" with "a whole lot of get-outs," because "I don't understand anything about economics [...] I was a) ignorant and b) stupid about money." He decided that the best way to explain the 2008 financial crisis was to put himself on the stage as a character.[6]
All of the interviews depicted in the play are based on real interviews Hare conducted, with much of the dialogue delivered verbatim. Hare said that he thought "it was good for a writer to go out and be rebuked by reality [...] to go out and have your view of the world refreshed by actually talking to people, and learning about how they see things." Because he "hates verbatim theatre", he sought to use "the figure of the author" to "break the form up and to use it like music," drawing inspiration from Glenn Gould's album "Solitude Trilogy."[6]
Hare posited that "if journalism is the first draft of history, then maybe I offer the second draft of history" and says he imparts each of his plays with a "metaphorical dimension which journalism can't give," describing the metaphor of The Power of Yes as "whether a group of people who impose their own version of the world can actually succeed in imposing that version or whether reality won't always come along and bite them [...] from behind."[6]