“It is a work of fiction… ” A recorded voice fills the auditorium as the house lights go down. Damian Green, the then work and pensions secretary, speaking in the House of Commons in 2016, is challenging the representation of the benefits system in I, Daniel Blake, the award-winning film, released that year, by Paul Laverty (writer) and Ken Loach (director). Green has only seen trailers for the film.
Playwright Dave Johns, who played Daniel on screen, punctuates his new stage adaptation with projections of social media posts from government ministers, pronouncing on matters that motor the action: austerity, food banks, child poverty. We, the audience, are free to decide which feels more like fiction: the drama before us or the politicians’ tweets.
