It’s rare that a highly-touted Edinburgh International Festival theatrical production lives up to its advance excitement so spectacularly well. Written by political playwright James Graham, who’s known for the National Theatre’s Dear England, and produced with the National Theatre of Scotland, Make It Happen tells of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s cataclysmic 2008 collapse.
Graham’s fans will be unsurprised to hear there’s so much more going on here. Sandy Grierson, a national treasure of the Scottish stage, is reserved but menacing as an imagined version of RBS boss Fred ‘the Shred’ Goodwin, an avatar of the free market with a very human tendency towards avarice and bullying.
The acquisitive Goodwin builds a global kingdom headquartered in Edinburgh’s Gogarburn complex, but as the whole thing buckles under its own hubris, he’s repeatedly visited A Christmas Carol-style by the ghost of Adam Smith (a sweary, magnetic Brian Cox), who educates Goodwin on the true nature of his ‘moral philosophy’.
Dundee Rep’s Andrew Panton directs a sharp-suited Greek chorus (among them other modern Scottish greats including Ann Louise Ross, Gavin Jon Wright and the brilliant Andy Clark as an unexpectedly heroic Gordon Brown) to perfection, as they sing haunting versions of noughties hits by Franz Ferdinand, Keane and Adele.
Yet even as the false justification of greed through taking Smith’s name in vain is torn apart, because Smith advocated for tax, regulation and supporting all, the outrageous sight and sound of Grierson and Cox duetting on Kylie and Jason’s Especially for You is one moment among very many which won’t quickly be forgotten.
Make It Happen, Festival Theatre, until 9 Aug, times vary