ON THE night of September 29 2008, the then Taoiseach Brian Cowen and minister for finance Brain Lenihan decided to guarantee Ireland’s banks – to the tune of €440 billion.
Guaranteed! staged by Fishamble Theatre Company, tells the story of that night, and how they got there.
Written by journalist and documentary-maker Colin Murphy, and based on official documents, and off-the-record interviews, Guaranteed! reconstructs Ireland’s banking boom and bust – as it was seen from inside the corridors of power. Widely acclaimed during its inaugural run in Dublin earlier in June, Guaranteed! now comes to the Town Hall Theatre on Wednesday November 18 at 8pm.
Murphy tells me what prompted him to make his first venture into writing for the stage:
“I’d been waiting for emails or press releases to reach me announcing a new play that would tackle the banking crisis. I felt that had an inbuilt drama, a group of men locked in a room overnight faced with an impossible decision to make. Eventually I thought ‘Nobody else is going to do it, maybe I’ll give it a go myself.’ So the play is based on my investigation of the banking crisis and aims to tell that story as clearly and concisely as possible.
“It’s a story in three acts. The first act gives us Sean Fitzpatrick rhapsodising about Anglo, the board of AIB scheming to increase their property lending, and Bertie Ahern outbidding his rivals for votes in the general election. It’s all about what’s not happening on stage: no hard questions being asked, no proper investigation of the banks, no real response to the global credit crunch.
“In the second act, we see the growing frenzy of September 2008, as Lehman’s collapses and banks around the world totter, the Irish banks with them. In Dublin, on September 29, the elite decision-makers gather at Government Buildings to save Anglo, and with it, they hope, the Irish economy. Like any good tragedy, we know what’s going to happen. The drama lies in seeing the characters trying to escape or ignore that fate, even as their actions bring it closer.”
With its cast of rogue bankers and panicked politicians Guaranteed! might seem to be awash with villains but this is not quite the case, as Murphy explains:
“Some people have been surprised that the key people involved come relatively well out of the story. I wanted to understand why decisions had been made and what people were thinking at the time so as a writer you have to find a way into the characters and look for empathy.
“When I talked to people who were involved in that night I did see them as people who at that point were trying to do the best they could in an almost impossible situation. People are surprised that they are looking at these guys on stage and feeling a measure of empathy whereas before they may have written them off as incompetent or corrupt.
“Having said that, the way I see it, the real glaring mistakes were made much earlier. By the time of the guarantee it was too late, they could not have got out of it that night without costing Ireland a huge amount of money.”
In so far as it’s a dramatisation of events, what’s the blend of fact and fiction in Murphy’s play?
“I use guesswork in the script when imagining conversations but as for fact there is nothing in the play that I couldn’t stand over,” he replies. “One of the people I spoke to put it well when he said ‘There didn’t need to be any conspiracy around Anglo for the guarantee decision to be made, because everybody in that room that night wanted to save Anglo because we were terrified of what would happen if we didn’t.’ That to me had a ring of truth.”
The third act of teh play involves the audience.
“When the lights go up and the cast leaves, a panel comes on to discuss and debate with the audience,” says Murphy. “I felt it was a necessary part of the evening in our show, like an exercise in participatory politics. Myself and a few experts will form the discussion panel. This is a key part of this ‘citizens’ inquiry’.
“In the play, the actors took the place of witnesses, telling us what happened. Now the audience takes the place of the jury. And the panel take the place of the barristers, helping the audience sift through the evidence. When we did the play in Dublin, every night most of the audience stayed for the discussion – and would have stayed long into the night, had we not had to let the theatre staff go home. The play touched a nerve.”
Tickets are available from the Town Hall on 091 - 569777 and www.tht.ie
