THEY say that every cab driver is working on a play or novel, conceived during long waits in the taxi rank with characters sourced from their many fares.
Few scripts, however, make it past traffic jam dreaming to be realised on the stage.
One success is John Evans’s Payback, which opens tonight at the Unity.
Concern that Liverpool people are losing their unique connection to the sea was what inspired the seaman-turned-cabbie to create his story of five dockworkers struggling with the environment changing around them.
Set in 1982, it revolves around themes of Thatcherism, containerisation of the port and impending redundancy.
“Having heard many tales and meeting many people during my years in and around the docklands, I came to realise that, with the demise of shipping, the awareness of the sense of community about the docks is rapidly disappearing with the passing of time,” he says.
“It was crucial to chronicle this way of life.”
Directed by Chris Darwin, the play opens with Yank, Angry, Lucky, Single Bert and Apron discussing how they will spend their redundancy pay.
Unbeknownst to them, another worker is plotting to swell his own redundancy packet with a reward from his employers for conning them into forfeiting their money.
“This really happened,” says Evans.
“But I also show the softer side of the dockers, who do a job to save money for one of the characters whose wife has cancer.
“They may be hard-working, rough men but there’s a real solidarity between them.”
Payback was first performed at former dockers’ bar The Casa, on Hope Street, in 2005, and was staged at the Royal Court the following year, as part of the Writing on the Wall festival.
As well as appearing at the Unity, the current cast will take the production to the Theatre Royal, in St Helens, next March.
“Everything used to come through the port – accents, food, culture – so the dockers were centre of everything,” says Evans.
“Now you have young people who hardly know what a boat looks like.
“But, if you go down to the docks and you let yourself be open to it, you can imagine what it used to be like.”
PAYBACK is at the Unity from tonight until Friday.
