Owing, no doubt, to the rising success of shows like This City Is Ours and the enigmatic portrayal of Michael Kavanagh by James Nelson-Joyce, the draw of the Liverpudlian accent has been a hot topic of debate amongst my friends in recent years.
I sit firmly on the pro fence, so I hardly knew how I’d be able to assess the thing fairly when I took my seat to watch Alan Bleasdale’s The Boys From The Blackstuff. James Graham‘s acclaimed adaption of the BAFTA-award winning TV series has landed at the Leeds Grand and will be running until Saturday 17th May 2025.
The play undoubtedly had a lot to live up to, yet Bleasdale says that he never expected the iconic story, which first came to prominence as a television drama, to be “the sell-out sensation” it has become.
Graham’s pungent take retains all of the authenticity of the original tale, resolutely melding the innermost fabrics of British culture with a wider desperation of opportunity.
The first half hones in on our five unemployed protagonists in 1980s Liverpool, battling with the spiky reality of unemployment amid the backdrop of Thatcher’s Britain. Having once worked as tarmac layers, (hence the name, “Blackstuff”) they now search relentlessly for new work whilst dodging the “sniffers” from the office of employment, who are seemingly hellbent on catching fraudulent contractors.
Regardless of when the play is set, the tone feels startlingly and sometimes uncomfortably fresh – but therein lies both its brilliance and relevance. Liverpool emerges throughout the play as its own complex character, its humour carefully balanced with the very real disappointment of a broken social system.
The set is poignantly raw, naked and industrial – which allows the acting centre stage. And enormous credit must of course go to the cast, all of whom are preposterously talented. You could forgive Jay Johnson for being more than a little nervous about his role. We first met his chaotic, memorable, oft-quoted character Yossa Hughes whilst played by Bernard Hill in the original television adaption, and the two have since been invariably interlinked – but Johnson’s performance here is unflinchingly brilliant. Far from a quivering, star-struck shadow, the acting is deft and perceptive, and artfully layered with the terrifying inconsistencies one might expect to see in someone driven to the brink of sanity by their circumstances. His catchphrases, “gizza job!” and “I can do that!” became part of the popular consciousness at the time of the show’s original release. They summed up the mood of many of the unemployed working class in the North of England.
Indeed, what is clear from the play’s tone, is that the focus is very much on the individual only insomuch as they represent the wider community, and how this community is still very much, in many respects, relevant today.
What becomes louder throughout the course of the play for example, is the underlying commentary on male mental health. The value of the man seems entirely dependent on his ability to find work, despite the situation the characters find themselves in being no real fault of their own, but rather owing to desperation and circumstance. The laughs and comedic catchphrases somewhat, but do not entirely, mask the vulnerable mindset of not only the individuals but also the society to which they belong.
You could argue that the failed brick wall built by Yosser at the beginning of the play, stands to represent the broken system of which few can hope to benefit. Even one of the “chasers”, laments that they once followed somebody to court, only to discover that the same individual was to plead guilty anyway, further demonstrating that even the “traitors” are themselves victims suffering at the hands of a neglectful regime.
At one point the characters’ shared situation is compared to “gerbils in a wheel”, which not only refers to the trapped environment each find themselves in, but the futility and helplessness felt by the community as a whole.
The play is loud in its moral lessons and heartbreaking in its honest performances, which have touches of comedic brilliance throughout. Ultimately the balance leaves you feeling both cathartic and contemplative – without doubt, this is a play that everybody should see at least once in their lives.
As Graham himself says, “Alan Bleasdale’s masterpiece is a story proudly forged in the humour and voice of Liverpool…but remains a story of national significance with a lasting impact on British culture. Taking it on the road to communities around the country feels like the most important thing we could be doing next with our story.”
The Boys From The Blackstuff is showing at the Leeds Grand Theatre from Wednesday 14th May until Saturday 17th May 2025. Purchase your tickets at https://leedsheritagetheatres.com/whats-on/boys-from-the-blackstuff-2025/
Photography by Alastair Muir.
Main image: L-R: Jurell Carter as Loggo, Jay Johnson as Yosser and Mark Womack as Dixie.
