The Permanent Way – The Vaults, London

Writer: David Hare

Director: Alexander Lass

Reviewer: Miriam Sallon

Many a play has benefitted from the thumping heartbeat of trains passing overhead at the Vaults theatre. Regardless of the play’s content, its bass rumblings never fail to exact rising tension and shallow breath. But never was there such an apt play for this in-built soundscape than The Permanent Way, directed by Alexander Lass.

Telling the story of the bloody fallout of train privatisation in the 90s, we hear from government officials, corporate managers, engineers, labourers, solicitors, and victims. Back in 2003, writer David Hare invited these people to tell their stories and it’s directly from their statements that The Permanent Way is written. It’s very rare any of them speaks to one another, but through a lattice of their interviews, we come to understand the consequences and, to a certain extent, the reasons why nothing was done to rectify the situation when it was clear a mistake had been made.

Each cast member plays a handful of roles, appearing in various costumes to differentiate between voices. The performances are heartbreakingly earnest, and it’s quite astounding to see how easily they slip between characters, taking on entirely different accents and demeanours.

The whole play is spoken outwardly to the audience, which is at once strangely abstract, and excruciatingly realistic- whilst the fourth-wall is completely removed, the verbatim format also means that there is no pretence or poetic licence. We’re constantly reminded that this is a play, but one completely subsumed by the truth.

Writing this verbatim is perhaps the only way to tell a story like this without it feeling incredibly emotionally manipulative. There’s no arguing with the words spoken directly by a bereaved mother or wife, whereas had the script merely been based on the truth one might have felt the playwright’s agenda-pushing a little too hard.

As it is, whilst there are occasional moments that feel a little like a manifesto against privatisation, on the whole, Hare does well to resist a completely lopsided or binary explanation. The only character he doesn’t spare is John Prescott who appears only as a smug suit, delivering the few empty statements he made at the time, as remembered by the other interviewees. Which maybe we can all agree is fine.

There are so many different voices that it does get fairly confusing regarding who works for which organisation, but that just goes to support the idea that there were too many subcontractors to really understand who to point the finger at.

Here’s hoping this play dates, becoming a historical relic; an example of terrible times gone by. But as it stands, it’s as relevant now as it ever was, and a must-see.

Runs until: 17 November 2019 | Image: Nobby Clark