Brian Cox is spellbinding in James Graham's most definitive drama yet

Telegraph

15 hours ago

Make It Happen, an eye-catching curtain-raiser to the 2025 Edinburgh International Festival theatre programme, is the latest opus from our foremost political playwright, James Graham. It also brings Succession star and Dundee-born acting titan, Brian Cox, back to the Scottish stage for the first time in a decade. While the play is a triumph, its sobering focus – the tenure of Fred Goodwin as CEO of the Royal Bank of Scotland – will offer little fillip to Edinburghian pride.
Established in the city in 1727, RBS was one of the world's biggest banks to founder in the 2008 financial crash, bailed out by Gordon Brown's government to the tune of £45bn. Far from seeming parochial or passé, this play feels like a belated, vital invitation for us all to reflect on the debacle, which saw Goodwin stripped of his knighthood. 'Fred the Shred' – as the reputedly ruthless executive was nicknamed – is played by Sandy Grierson, while Cox incarnates the 'ghost of fiscal past': the 18th-century Scottish economist – and here, Goodwin's hero – Adam Smith.
Over two hours, weaving fact and fiction, the production charts the course of RBS's rise and fall, from Goodwin's arrival there in 1998 to the bail-out emergency, with Cox providing a more satirical element as a fitfully appearing Smith. As such, the play examines the recklessness and inept regulation of the New Labour era, as well as – via Smith – the legacy of the Enlightenment.
Graham has done it again – turned complex history into theatrical gold. And this may be his most essential work yet, because it identifies the source of the political upheaval that preoccupies his work (whether in This House, on the stage, or Brexit: The Uncivil War, on TV). Gordon Brown's regime – when boom turned to bust – may have battered the nation, but it put new force behind Graham's career.
Brown is just one of the high-profile figures to emerge amid the finely co-ordinated ensemble, along with Alistair Darling, banker and baroness Shriti Vadera, and Laura Kuenssberg. Ideally, we'd see more of what went awry in the heart of government. But it's the nondescript, shadowy figure of Grierson's Goodwin who dominates the evening, empire-building in Edinburgh and determined to make corporate conquest after conquest. ('Make it Happen' was the company's adopted slogan, and it's frequently issued as a command to quivering staff.)
Goodwin isn't represented as a panto villain. With director Andrew Panton harnessing up-tempo, apposite pop hits from the period, the play stresses the aspirational energy Goodwin strove to unleash, chiming with the can-do spirit of Scottish devolution (1998). But Grierson brings self-contained menace to the role besides an unnerving resemblance to Vladimir Putin. There's the odd light touch of Carry On – bonking sessions in an office cupboard – but the dominant reference is Greek tragedy, the chorus stalking, Fury-like, a figure who becomes almost mythic in his hubris.
There's a quality of madness, then, to the apparition of Cox's economic grandee. The actor initially – gamely – plays himself, reluctantly recruited for a pop-up corporate entertainment. Later, the bewigged sage appears, as if surreally summoned by Goodwin's modern-day Faust, indulging in campy asides and marvelling at the 21 st century. But he increasingly becomes a figure of conscience-pricking disapproval, dismayed that Goodwin hasn't fully digested his writings.
The moral of Graham's story? Substance always trumps style, and if you're at the apex of power, you need to do your homework. Rachel Reeves: take note.