Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Neil Caple, Sue Jenkins, Izzy Campbell, Jason Done, Emily Pithon, Paul Duckworth.
Our personal problems take precedence over that which we understand are important to other people, it is who we are as a species. During panic, in the most extreme moments of what our minds can cope with as desperation and hopelessness threaten to overwhelm us, our struggles will be seen as more important than that suffered by a neighbour, a friend, or even a nation.
Such a reaction is understandable, not necessarily right, but it is after all a reflection of how primal we truly remain as a species, the fight or flight response making sure that we seek to address that which can cause us damage before we help others in situation. It is the aircraft effect expanded on a social scale, when the oxygen bags drop, we are urged to make sure we are safe first before giving others the aid they require.
It takes a special kind of person to look at the situation and do all they can to offer hope before thinking of their own problem, and to those who man the telephones for thousands of hours a year, those who deal with the frantic and the anxious as their world falls apart, those who listen to the screams of the desperate and the accusations of damned ignorant, the fact remains that we do not deserve their hope, Of A Night, or in the cold light of day, because we don’t value them in the way that we should.
Written by Paul Jones, Of A Night brings to the forefront of the listener’s attention the troubles faced by a small group of dedicated people who work overnight in a Housing Association call centre in Liverpool, and just how little we think of those who have to deal with the misery caused by the sheer volume of upset by government legislation, of those who have been pushed to the brink of their sanity by fear and circumstance.
With a cast that includes several of Liverpool’s renowned local and prized theatre regulars, Of A Night is the boiling point that we all need to be made aware of, and indeed should be expanded into a full series for television; it is important for all to be made, not just aware of the plight and dedication of those at the sharp end of Britain’s broken system, but to have it thrust down the throat of everyone who enters politics, everyone who complains at the ‘money spent’ on maintaining a life line, and be told this is what you get when you ignore the damage done.
With a terrific performance by the gracious Neil Caple as the under-pressure Tony, and especially with his interaction with the argumentative and obnoxious Carl, played with delicious obscenity to human suffering by the marvellous Paul Duckworth, Of A Night is a must listen by all.
Never forget, if you are fortunate too never feel the distress, then be thankful, for others, millions, are hanging onto life by a thread and the answer of a phone call.
Ian D. Hall