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Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
This was a difficult one for me to sit through because I lived through it. I worked at RBS when everything came crashing down in 2008, so the memories are still very sharp. I remember the day the bank nearly collapsed. The atmosphere in the office was suffocating. Nobody knew what was coming next, and yet everyone knew it wasn’t going to be good. Watching those events played out on stage brought all of that back, which made the experience uncomfortable but also fascinating.
Brian Cox returned to the Scottish stage as Adam Smith, and while his performance was strong, I found it a touch exaggerated at times, almost camp, but still compelling. The real standout was Sandy Grierson as Fred Goodwin. He managed to capture that odd mix of power and unease that really did exist around Fred. Back in the day it always felt as if the office had to be scrubbed spotless whenever he was near, a bit like the way everything supposedly smelt of fresh paint before the Queen arrived somewhere. That sense of artificial perfection came across so well in his performance.
The staging was impressive too. The set captured the corporate coldness of the banking world, and the design was full of smart details. One of the most effective touches was the use of the RBS globe, which expanded as the story unfolded to show the bank’s rapid growth and eventual downfall.
For me this was a powerful production, both because of my personal connection and because of how well the story was told. A sharp reminder of how quickly hubris can bring down even the biggest institutions, and how many people were caught in the wreckage.