As it’s adapted from a film, I, Daniel flows fluidly from one scene to the next, one office or apartment or street corner to the next.
You’re a hard-working guy. You’ve spent your life working with your hands. But now you’ve suffered a heart attack and your doctor says you shoudn’t go back to work, certainly not to the heavy carpentry work that’s supported you all these years.
Worse, you’re utterly lost dealing with social workers and the forms and regulations and computers they toss at you before you can get the support you’ve spent decades earning. Before you know it, you’re out on the street with no place to go.
Makara Gamble, JD Cullum, Philicia Saunders (Photo by Cooper Bates)So begins the powerful drama “I, Daniel Blake,” now playing at the Fountain Theatre through November 24th. Adapted from the award-winning 2016 film of the same name directed by Ken Loach and written by Paul Laverty, this one-act play tells the all-too-familiar story of regular people defeated by heartless governmental bureaucracies that are far more interested in enforcing petty rules than offering any smidgen of humanity.
Played by J.D. Cullum, Daniel Blake is a kindly, warm-hearted bloke who’s recovering from the loss of his wife as well as his heart attack. He quickly breaks open his toolbox and thin wallet to help a down-at-the-heels mother and daughter who have been forced to move to Newcastle, in the far northernmost reaches of England, where they face the same dehumanizing systems that are not so slowly crushing Daniel.
Makara Gamble, and Philicia Saunders (Photo by Cooper Bates)Katie and Daisy–played by Philicia Saunders and Makara Gamble–band together with Daniel in working class solidarity to fight off the ravages, however unsuccessfully, of a social system or social ethos that is perfectly content to allow 60,000 fellow Angelenos to live homeless on our streets, provided they don’t put up their tents on your sidewalk.
As it’s adapted from a film, I, Daniel flows fluidly from one scene to the next, one office or apartment or street corner to the next. And as with so many performances at the Fountain Theatre, it’s really quite a powerful experience.
Makara Gamble, and Philicia Saunders (Photo by Cooper Bates)See I, Daniel Blake on Fridays, Saturdays, and Mondays at 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 2:00 p.m. through November 24 at the Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., Los Angeles 90029. For tickets/info: 323.663.1525 or Fountain Theatre.
