Yosser in Boys from the Blackstuff by Alan Bleasdale

Yosser in Boys from the Blackstuff by Alan Bleasdale

'Boys from the Blackstuff' is a play written by Alan Bleasdale set in

Liverpool in the early 1980's. At this time many heavy industries were

reducing their workforce and therefore unemployment was rising. The

play shows the effect of unemployment on various individuals, in the

episode 'Yosser's Story', Yosser Hughes is separated from his wife and

he has his three children, after a number of problems he loses his

children and begins to have a chain of nervous breakdowns from time to

time, he gets beaten up by the police. He pits a window through with

George and gets arrested having no home to go to after being evicted,

he then escapes from the police and tries to commit suicide in the

lake where he dreamt his kids drowning, he fails to commit suicide and

get arrested again.

One of the main reasons Yosser is so special is that he faces a huge

number of problems, for example: Physiological problems, mental

issues, he's in debt, he is receiving no dole money, he feels as if

its him Vs the world and that everyone is out to get him, his house

gets repossessed and he is separated from his wife. In Yosser's Story,

Alan Bleasdale uses language for a dramatic and entertaining effect.

Yosser's words and catchphrases give a hint as to how desperate he has

become, for example he continually says "giz a job", this shows how

hopeless Yosser has become, he could do simple jobs, but is not being

given the chance to and is just being told to go on the dole, when he

goes to the dole office it is a really fraught situation when he

stares the clerk out, who is actually played by the writer Alan

Bleasdale. Another example of a catchphrase is " I can do that", when

the bailiffs come to board up his house, he says to one of them "I can

do that" again showing he is in a desperate situation for a job to

help support his family and keep his house from being repossessed.