Boys From The Blackstuff, UK Tour Review (2025)
The 2025 Tour Cast of Boys from the Blackstuff. Photo by Alastair Muir
Written by Becky K for Theatre and Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review
Nearly forty years after the hit TV series, Alan Bleasdale’s, Boys From The Blackstuff embarks on its UK tour following its run at Liverpool’s Royal Court. As sensitive as it is bold, James Graham’s new adaptation is a touching exploration of class, identity and community.
Set in Thatcherite Merseyside, Chrissie, Loggo, George, Dixie and Yosser are stuck in a vicious cycle of unemployment, pushed to find new methods of making money off the grid. Each with their own narrative, the story follows the effects of workplace exploitation and how poverty is creeping up in their lives and relationships.
Dressed with large cranes and scaffolding Amy Jane Cook’s impressive set transports you to a construction site on the Merseyside docks. I particularly liked the use of AV at the back of the set, with nicely designed illustrations and rippling water throughout the performance. The opening sequence, showing archives of Margaret Thatcher and 70’s workers with the rippling water effects set a nihilistic tone to the concept, reinforcing the inescapable troubles of employment.
With the core characters all being chaps in the same boat, director Kate Wasserberg does a great job of distinguishing the differences in the male characters and how they approach the oppressive situation they are in. From Chrissie’s (George Caple) pride, refusing to take legitimate work from corrupt companies out of respect for his peers, to Yosser’s (Jay Johnson) desperate drive for work, anything and anywhere, each character dynamic complimented the other to give a very well-rounded and humane view of what life was like on the dole. Johnson’s stand out performance in particular emphasised the hardship through his grief-stricken performance of Yosser, emotively portraying how the system he operates in has led to the loss of his wife, kids and ultimately his mind.
Overall, Boys From The Blackstuff creates a strong sense of working class community that echoes the comforts of other popular films and TV series such as This is England and Billy Elliott. The familiarity of it did however spark a question as to if the concept could be refreshed even more, potentially highlighting modern day employment and workplace concerns that feel hard to ignore when watching a true story like this in retrospect.
Boys from the Blackstuff embarks on a UK tour until 5 July 2025.
★★★★
