The Hard Man **

Finborough Theatre, London
EXCERPT: "The writing is undeniably unsophisticated, with too many short scenes, abrupt shifts between narrative styles, and poorly thought through characters, but Mark Dominy’s direction didn’t make the best of a bad job."

Plot summary:

“I’m a lunatic. A right bad lot. What the Judge always calls, “A menace to society”. I’m speaking to you tonight from a Scottish prison where I am serving a life-sentence for murder. What you are going to see is my life as I remember it”

Glasgow, the 1970s. Johnny Byrne is a young schoolboy involved in petty crime and violence. But when he meets Deadeye, he soon finds himself known as a ‘hard man’ and being convicted of murder. But it is when he is serving his sentence in Barlinnie that the real acts of brutality occur...

Based on the life of Jimmy Boyle, co-writer of the play and – at the time of its production – still a prisoner in Barlinnie Special Unit, The Hard Man is his compelling and shocking study of a brutalised man in a brutalising system.

Cast and Creative team:

Directed by Mark Dominy

Designed by Mike Lees

Produced by Max Bittleston

Martin Docherty - Johnny Byrne

Ross Dunsmore - Deadeye / Archie / Kelley / Policeman / Clerk / Mochan

Adam Harley - Bandit / Johnstone

Jack McMillan - Slugger / Renfrew

Ruth Milne - Lizzie / Carole / Woman's voice

Ross F. Sutherland - Big Danny / Lewis / Commando / Paisley / Policeman

Sarah Waddell - Maggie / Maw / Woman with Archie / Bar Woman / Kelly / Didi

Thoughts:

The Hard Man’s redeeming feature is its high quality cast. Considering they were unpaid, I imagine it was the Finborough’s name and reputation that lured them in. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel that either the writing or direction warranted the Finborough’s stamp of support.

The play is excessively, repetitively and quite mindlessly violent. It basically makes for a pretty grim audience experience. I didn’t care for any of the characters and by the end, the gruesomeness of the brutality made me just keen the whole thing would be over soon. The play is autobiographically co-written by Jimmy Boyle, and the lack of understanding about what audiences require dramatically shows through. There seems to be no real point to the production – no moral compass or purpose, and as such it just becomes wearing. The relationships that the play proffers haven’t been well developed enough to be believable, and although the actors tried hard to construct people from them, there is no scriptural evidence for why Johnny’s girlfriend would be faithful to him or why one of the police guards would be kind to him.

The writing is undeniably unsophisticated, with too many short scenes, abrupt shifts between narrative styles, and poorly thought through characters, but Mark Dominy’s direction didn’t make the best of a bad job. The repetitive use of the same music to change each scene felt increasingly clunky and highlighted the script’s flaws. And, although the acting was strong, I did find the clear discrepancy between what the actors looked like and the type of people they were representing quite off putting. The three friends seemed an incongruous mix: although Johnny Byrne as Martin Docherty was appropriately weasely-looking, he was also quite old, whereas his two stooges (Adam Harley and Jack McMillan) were inappropriately fresh faced and innocent looking. I have rarely – if ever – felt that look so hampered the credibility of performances. Furthermore, things that Dominy should have straightened out weren’t: for example, as the play progresses, Docherty does far too much pacing, which is as annoying as it is distracting. I also felt Mike Lees’ design was too self-evidently low budget to justify the high ticket prices we paid, or – more importantly – the high quality shows that the Finborough promises. Considering these issues, it was all the more impressive therefore that – for the most part – our attention was held (particularly tricky when there is a lot of quite samey ranting). Still, though, not quite the show I was looking for on my Monday night.