When David Storey's play was first staged at the Royal Court in 1969, it was still novel to see the world of work reproduced on stage. Plays were largely about middle-class people talking at each other. Storey's play provided an opportunity for middle-class theatregoers to watch actors pretending to be working class actually working.
Thirty years on, when work has invaded our stages and soap operas and we all think we know what it must feel like to work in a factory, a fast-food outlet or on a building site, this play still feels voyeuristic and fake from the plush comfort of the stalls. Mind you, it is a particularly classy fake and a reasonably enjoyable one.
You have to admire a play where so little happens. It is the day before the wedding of the daughter of tenting contractor Ewbank. Early in the morning his workers arrive and start erecting the marquee. In the final act they return and dismantle it, clearing away the debris from the wedding party that we never actually see. That's about it.
Members of the wedding party occasionally wander in, but for the most part the focus is on foreman Kay and his workers as they labour to raise the tent and lower it. We witness their squabbles and banter and find out a little, but not much, about each of them.
In many ways the open-endedness of the narratives (and there are many) and the ambiguity of the play's meanings (which are also many) make it seem very modern. But the depiction of the workers as loutish, workshy misfits seems appallingly dated.
During the performance, I wondered whether this play might be made to work if it was performed in a field as a site-specific event, but even then the audience would be acutely aware that they were witnessing an intricately choreographed masquerade, never the real thing.
You might wonder what prompted Oxford Stage Company to revive this dinosaur, but you can't complain about Sean Holmes's production. It is tight, observant and boasts some great performances, particularly from Paul Copley as the self-made but still dissatisfied gaffer heading for a coronary, Terence Booth as the reticent foreman and Ferdy Roberts as the simple-minded lad for whom pleasure is a piece of cake.
Until February 24. Box office: 01332 363275. Then touring to Exeter, Poole, Ipswich and Westcliff on Sea.
