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The Hard Man
Finborough Theatre, London SW10
4 Stars
Co-written by Jimmy Boyle and Tom McGrath, The Hard Man was first produced at Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre in 1977 and it now resurfaces in a production directed by Mark Dominy which is well worth seeing.
In his younger years Boyle was a vicious gangster and money lender, uncompromising in his use of casual brutality to exploit the poor and vulnerable in his local community.
He is the template for Johnny Byrne, the central character in The Hard Man. The autobiographical narrative follows a petty delinquent graduating to mainstream villainy and, framed and convicted of murder, to a purgatorial and brutalised life as a prisoner in the Barlinnie and Peterhead gaols.
Byrne brings to mind the James Cagney character in films like Angels With Dirty Faces and White Heat but without the offbeat humour and sentimentality.
That's unsurprising, since The Hard Man is unrelenting and grim in the depiction of violence perpetrated by Byrne - and of that inflicted upon him - by the tender custodians of Barlinnie and Peterhead.
In significant and effective interventions, Byrne steps out of character and challenges the audience in the comfort of their seats to reflect upon the judicial processes and the actions of the screws in consigning him to the hell in which he finds himself.
Martin Docherty (pictured) gives a sustained and bravura performance as Byrne and he's excellently supported by six other cast members who play multiple parts, with Ross F Sutherland meriting particular mention as the sodomitic and psychopathic prison warder Paisley. Ronin Traynor choreographs the violence with chilling effect.
One of the issues the play brings to mind is, not least, poverty as a precursor to crime and the resilience of the individual human spirit in the face of systemic and institutionalised aggression.
Boyle, after all, was not broken by his experiences of gaol and became a successful writer and sculptor.
His life was redeemed by an experimental unit within Barlinnie which permitted him to fulfil a potential previously denied by society.
This, of course, is all history and could not possibly happen today. Go and see this play, support this enterprising fringe theatre and thank David Cameron for G4S - and Chris Grayling for an end to legal aid while you're at it.
Runs until March 18. Box office: 0844 847-1652.
