Podcast Summary: MickeyJoTheatre – Make It Happen Starring Sandy Grierson and Brian Cox (Edinburgh International Festival) - ★★★★ REVIEW

Host: Mickey Jo (MickeyJoTheatre)
Date: August 16, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode, Mickey Jo delivers an in-depth review of Make It Happen, a new play by James Graham presented at the 2025 Edinburgh International Festival. The play dramatizes the notorious 2008 collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), starring Sandy Grierson as Fred Goodwin and Brian Cox in a quirky turn as the ghost of Adam Smith. Mickey Jo explores the show's history, style, staging, and emotional impact, weighing its theatrical strengths and narrative shortcomings for both Scottish and broader audiences.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Festival Context & Production Background

• Not Fringe, but International Festival:
  • Unlike many other shows at Edinburgh this year, Make It Happen is part of the Edinburgh International Festival, which Mickey Jo reminds listeners pre-dates the better-known Fringe (02:41).
  • The production is a high-profile collaboration involving the National Theatre of Scotland, Dundee Rep, Playful Productions, and Neal Street Productions.
  • Sold-out performances indicate strong public interest, and Mickey Jo anticipates a future life for the play.

2. Thematic Exploration & James Graham's Approach

• James Graham’s History Plays:
  • Renowned for dramatizing pivotal but overlooked events, Graham aims not just for a factual retelling but draws contemporary relevance and explores the human condition (03:39).
  • ‘He has this brilliant way ... of taking a moment in history, a seemingly unimportant moment in history, and identifying not only why it was pivotal ... but also bringing it into conversation with where we are now.’ – Mickey Jo ([03:49])
  • Yet, Mickey Jo questions whether Make It Happen delivers a strong enough contemporary emotional takeaway.

3. Story Structure & Characterization

• Opening Scenes and Style:
  • The play opens in present-day Edinburgh with a tour group discussing a lavish painting from the RBS’s heyday, leading to a shift into a Grecian theatrical mode (Greek masks, chorus).
  • The narrative is described as lying ‘somewhere between a traditional historical James Graham play ... and a Greek tragedy in the way that it is staged’ ([05:35]).
• Central Figure – Fred Goodwin as Tragic Protagonist:
  • Grierson’s Goodwin is drawn as a modern, flawed antihero; ambitious, ruthless, rising from humble origins to become RBS head ([06:27]).
  • He resembles a Shakespearean villain, with hubris and ambition leading to a classic downfall.

4. Brian Cox’s Scene-Stealing Role

• Adam Smith – Ghostly Mentor:
  • After a meta cameo appearance as himself, Brian Cox returns as a flamboyant, campy ghost of Adam Smith, providing both comic relief and sharp philosophical critique ([08:56] onwards).
  • ‘Brian Cox is having what seems like a very fun time playing a very campy, creepy ghost.’ ([09:52])
  • Smith’s interventions are at first playful (shopping at John Lewis, scented candles) before turning serious, challenging Goodwin’s misinterpretation of capitalist ideology.

Notable Quote:

• ‘If you’d told me Brian Cox plays Campy Ghost, I’d have been even more excited ... he is hilarious in this. Brilliant performances by the two leading men, balancing each other tonally very, very well.’ – Mickey Jo ([10:26])

5. Critique: Emotional Impact and Representation

• Whose Story Gets Told?
  • Mickey Jo reflects on Scottish audience reactions during the interval, noting disappointment that the play doesn’t explicitly voice the suffering of ordinary people affected by the crisis ([12:57]).
  • While the Greek chorus provides some spectral judgment, there’s little direct representation of working-class victims.
  • ‘...the thing that I think they would always benefit from is a “something just broke” moment.’ ([14:49])
• Comparison to The Lehman Trilogy and Sondheim’s Assassins:
  • Like these works, Make It Happen focuses on the architects of crisis, but risks neglecting the broader human cost.
  • Mickey Jo argues for a moment of direct humanity from those impacted.

Notable Quote:

• ‘Similarly, this is a play about Fred Goodwin, and we don't hear the voices of the people whose lives he ruined.’ ([15:59])

6. Music, Design, and Direction

• Music Choices:
  • Pop hits from the 2000s feature throughout, but Mickey Jo finds the soundtrack less thematically coherent, wishing for a more Scottish flavor ([16:37]).
• Set Design and Visual Motifs:
  • Anna Fleishl provides a “sprawling, brutalist set” echoing the old RBS HQ and symbolizing both power and the secrets underneath ([17:36]).
  • One effective recurring visual: a globe inflating as RBS expands, creating ‘the sensation of a balloon that was at some point going to burst’ ([13:45]).
• Staging Flourishes:
  • Striking stage images include the destruction of an office-blocking tree with a wine bottle, paralleling excess; and a poignant juxtaposition of Gordon Brown with a rock, Goodwin with a banknote ([24:14]).

7. Playwright’s Signature Style

• Detail and Humanity:
  • Graham excels at detailing under-explored financial footnotes, such as the shadow banking system, and giving even culpable bankers moments of depth ([18:40]).
  • However, Mickey Jo maintains that the play is a bit too sympathetic to Goodwin and his cohorts, at the potential expense of stronger condemnation.

8. The Play's "Big Message" and Contemporary Relevance

• Value, Confidence, and Illusion:
  • The whole enterprise of banking (and the narrative itself) is likened to confidence trickery: it works only as long as belief is maintained ([25:20]).
  • The show ultimately offers a gripping exploration of hubris and the fragility of trust in the financial system, even if it doesn’t go far enough in moral critique.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On James Graham’s Playwriting:

  • ‘He has this brilliant way ... of taking a moment in history ... and bringing it into conversation with where we are now.’ – Mickey Jo ([03:49])

• On Brian Cox’s performance:

  • ‘Once he gets into that role, he is hilarious in this. It’s brilliant performances by the two leading men balancing each other tonally very, very well.’ ([10:26])
  • ‘Brian Cox is having what seems like a very fun time playing a very campy, creepy ghost.’ ([09:52])

• On the play’s limitations:

  • ‘Similarly, this is a play about Fred Goodwin and we don’t hear the voices of the people whose lives he ruined.’ ([15:59])
  • ‘The humanity extended to them and to Fred Goodwin is a little detrimental to what the audience might like to see in terms of shaming them for their mistakes.’ ([20:47])

• On the big dramatic device:

  • ‘Every time a decision is made by him that we can already tell is leading to his demise and the bank’s demise, it is punctuated by him giving the order: “make it happen.”’ ([18:59])

Key Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment/Event Description | |-----------|------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:41 | Historical context and festival origins | | 03:49 | James Graham’s method and body of work | | 05:35 | Greek theatrical style and opening device | | 06:27 | Introduction and characterization of Fred Goodwin | | 08:56 | Brian Cox cameo and transition to Adam Smith ghost | | 09:52 | Brian Cox’s comic performance as Adam Smith | | 10:26 | The tonal balance between Grierson and Cox | | 12:57 | Audience reactions to characterization and emotional stakes | | 13:45 | Visual motif: the inflating globe | | 15:59 | Critique of narrative’s focus—missing working class voices | | 16:37 | Thoughts on music and staging | | 17:36 | Set design observations | | 18:59 | Repetition of the line "make it happen" and its significance | | 20:47 | On the play’s degree of condemnation/critique | | 22:31 | Parallel between religious interpretation and Goodwin’s idolizing | | 24:14 | Striking visual parallels in the staging | | 25:20 | The confidence trick at the heart of banking and of the play |

Overall Tone and Closing Thoughts

Mickey Jo’s review is engaging, witty, and deeply informed by both his passion for theatre and his firsthand immersion among the Scottish audience. He admires Make It Happen for its dramaturgy, compelling performances, and inventive theatricality—particularly Brian Cox’s gleefully campy Adam Smith. Yet, he ultimately finds the piece falls just short of catharsis, wishing it had more directly engaged with the human cost of banking failure.

He predicts (and hopes) for a future life for the play and encourages listeners to share their own thoughts—especially if they saw this run in Edinburgh.

For Further Engagement

• For more reviews or to join the theatre conversation, Mickey Jo encourages listeners to subscribe to his YouTube channel or follow the podcast ([end]).