Went to a play a few weeks ago at our local theatre (Hull Truck). The play was about pub quizzes, but was a powerful performance. Its about a soldier coming back from Afganistan, and finds the NHS won't give his dad the medicine he needs, he meets a career woman (Melissa) who works in regeneration and is on the fiddle, and drug dealing is rife in the city.

Lots of Hull references, but the striking thing was the attack on regeneration. The dad (wheelchair bound and old), tells Melissa that she should be creating proper jobs for men. Mel is astonished, why would one want to work with men?! Her quango is to build a dry ski slope, and retail crap, and the dad is appaulled.

He launches into a rant how there are men who need a job they can be proud of, how men like to get their hands dirty, do proper work. She couldn't see it of course.

This struck a chord with me, as I've seen so many big industries go to the wall in this country. Traditional male jobs disappear, and we wonder why we have the problems we have.

I also saw a recent documentary about the British ship building industry at weekend, and the shot of grown men crying when they heard that the Queen Elizabeth had caught fire and sank in Hong Kong harbour made it really strike home how pertinent the play was.

We are becoming a leisure/retail country, and so far removed from the work that is involved in creating our society that programs that look at dangerous jobs are becoming a major form of entertainment (see Trawlermen, Ice Road Truckers....).

Anyway, some reviews of the play are here:
Pub Quiz Is Life at the Hull Truck Theatre, review - Telegraph
Pub Quiz is Life at the Hull Truck Theatre - Times Online
Pub Quiz is Life at the Hull Truck Theatre - Times Online

The Guardian weren't too impressed:
Pub Quiz Is Life | Theatre review | Stage | The Guardian