The winner of the Palme d’Or, the film I, Daniel Blake directed by Ken Loach, the great social realist of British cinema, is preparing for a stage production. It will be signed by Dave Johns, the actor who played the central role in the 2016 film.
Johns says that in searching for a new version of the story, he felt the film’s portrayal of poverty was more important than ever.
The play will premiere next May in Newcastle, where the film was also shot. After that, she will go on a tour of the United Kingdom, reports the British Guardian.
In Loach’s film, Johns played a widowed carpenter who suffers a heart attack and finds himself ineligible for employment and child support. He befriends Kate, a young single mother who has found herself in similar difficulties. He wrote the script Paul Lavertyand the film received good reviews for its extremely vivid narrative of the bureaucratic welfare system.
Ken Loach first studied law at Oxford, then turned to theatre. He began his film career on television with a series of docu-dramas, among them Cathy Come Homewhich even led to a direct change in homelessness laws.
Johns, who grew up in Newcastle and worked as a bricklayer, rose to fame as a stand-up comedian and the film I, Daniel Blake brought him worldwide fame as he entered his 60s.
“Dave Johns, who is actually a stand-up comedian with no extensive acting experience, embodies Slehernik, the lone voice of reason in a sea of madness. His Daniel is not a fatalistic, doomed individual, which makes it all the more difficult to watch him bureaucratically the wheels are slowly grinding,” MMC’s film critic wrote to his character Ana Jurc.
As he said, he welcomed the idea of adapting the script for the stage with enthusiasm: “But I didn’t just want to put a movie on stage — I wanted to update the story for 2022.” It is during this time “sad to find out”, that not much has changed since the film began airing. In his opinion, the story is still as relevant as it was in 2016, perhaps even more so today, when the ever-increasing cost of living makes it even more difficult to find a way out of poverty. “Daniel and Kate’s story could be anyone’s story,” Johns said.
According to his predictions, the play will focus on kindness, compassion, humor and hope, “who can help us in the most difficult times”.
Source: Rtvslo