RSC Friends

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Photograph by Ellie Kurttz.

A brave new play from the RSC this fierce polemic is uncompromising in its attack on government housing and benefit policy and the plight of the poor in contemporary Britain. The powerful and emotional exchanges between the poor, the authorities, and parasitic criminals who thrive in this society are amongst the most powerful scenes in the play.

Mickey wants to convince his dying grandfather that compassion still exists in modern Britain and sets out on a quest to search out and photograph examples of kindness that still exists in a callous and corrupt society. Mickey’s self imposed brief is to find examples of seven acts of mercy which he has been shown by his grandfather in a print of Caravaggio’s painting of the same name.The people Mickey meets are desperately trying to halt their descent into destitution and retain their dignity and humanity.

Alternating scenes, signalled by minimal but effective sets juxtapose the suffering of the poor in seventeenth century Rome with that of the destitute in twenty first century Liverpool. The parallels between the lot of suffering humanity in the two cities is poignant. Mickey finds some evidence of compassion for the poor and achieves some personal reconciliation but overall this is a howl of protest against the iniquities of the world.