Love hurts

There is very little art about modern poverty, because who wants to know? It is barely acknowledged, unless there is redemption, or salvation, as in A Christmas Carol. Those most suited to make it — those who are actually poor — are usually too busy doing something else, such as surviving.

So, it is remarkable to learn that Alexander Zeldin’s play LOVE, a success at the National Theatre in 2016, is now a film and will air this weekend on BBC2. The closest thing to it recently was Benefits Street, which was exploitative and, therefore, an instant hit.

Zeldin is 33. He read French at Oxford University and is artist-in-residence at the National Theatre. His work is plain and understated. He listens, rather than writes, and there are no diatribes, just calm despair. His previous play, Beyond Caring, is about workers on zero-hours contracts in a sausage factory. Tiny losses aggregate: a coffee machine steals a pound; there are not enough wheels on a mop bucket; a washing-up glove is lost. The losses swell and threaten to overwhelm: a mother can’t see her child; a woman judged fit for work is nothing of the sort; they will be paid late. ‘But I can’t tell you what or how many hours you’re going to be working,’ the boss, an ordinary monster called Ian, tells them, ‘as responsiveness is part of the brief.’ Not being available at any time is posited as a moral defect and they wilt, effectively slaves. It is blacker even than LOVE, the second in this trilogy. The final play is about children in care.