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Make It Happen review

Make it Happen is a dramatisation of the events surrounding the collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland during the 2008 financial crash. It stars Sandy Grierson as Fred Goodwin (then RBS CEO), and Brian Cox as the ghost of economist and alleged forefather of capitalism Adam Smith. Written by James Graham and directed by Andrew Panton, it plays at the Festival Theatre as a part of the Edinburgh International Festival.

Make It Happen is semi-satirical, but mostly is in possession of the kind of humour that elicits a mild chuckle at most. At first it is hard to tell if this is the writing or the delivery. Brian Cox however seemingly proves the latter to be true, as all his scenes inject a much needed energy. Cox's "Adam Smith" is a campy self-caricature that is the light and humour of the production.

Make it Happen opens with tourists being shown around an Edinburgh gallery. This being festival season, much of the audience will be tourists themselves. This scene involves people of the present day looking back with hindsight and sympathising, I suppose trying to evoke the transcendence of class struggle throughout generations in a way something like Inspector Calls does - though of course Priestley executes this much more effectively. There are lots of little Scotland in-jokes, like referring to “Bloody masses of people” during the Fringe. Make it Happen feels so completely "Edinburgh" which is great in one aspect, but lacks a timeless quality making it unfit for any kind of transfer in its current state. 

The show has the feeling of a jukebox musical and you have to question why it is directed the way it is. Make it Happen uses well known songs that invoke an already existing feeling, which I can only see as a way to inject a kind of false emotion and nostalgia - seemingly masking the fact the writing is doing very little. I wonder if they just had the guts to make this an original musical, actually allowing Make It Happen to forge its own path, whether it would be stronger, more cohesive project. The music only really works during a section depicting the bacchanalian partying of the 1%, but a karaoke scene between Goodwin and Smith later on in the play is nothing other than cringeworthy. 

Make It Happen also falls into much the same Trap as Nye - beloved institution (RBS/NHS), beloved actor (Cox/Sheen), beloved historic figure (Smith/Bevan). While certainly less saccharine than Nye, it still reads as populist - or rather popularist - messaging first, play second.  

There are some rather clever elements of Make it Happen. I like the exchange between Smith and Goodwin where Goodwin claims he has read The Wealth of Nations in its entirety: “What all 900 pages?!” “Well… the teachings come through”. This is evocative of the way Smith’s work is too often misinterpreted, or idolised by those with only a surface level familiarity. In the second half of the play when Goodwin's and Gordon Brown's interpretations of Smith go head to head, Brown undeniably comes off better. This falls alongside the revelation that Goodwin has completely neglected to read Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments - the work that provides the ethical framework for the rest of Smith's oeuvre. 

Sandy Grierson is a rather brilliant Goodwin, embodying a quiet evil, demanding everything from those below him in the RBS hierarchy. It is clear Ann Louise Ross is a stunning actor, but she is not given much space to manoeuver, and feels like a titan stifled. Andy Scott as Gordon Brown is solid and believable, but almost certainly fits dour Scot trope we have known him to be painted as. Brian Cox, naturally, steals the show. 

Make It Happen has positives, but the approach is so messy and scatter gun. It feels like it is trying to be everything and ends up achieving little. ★★★☆☆



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