Image above: Makara Gamble and Philicia Saunders in “I, Daniel Blake” at the Fountain Theatre (Photo by Cooper Bates)

Property, Poverty, and “I, Daniel Blake”

Dave Johns’s stage adaptation of Ken Loach’s film at the Fountain Theatre

By Isadora Swann

This review is part of the Stage Raw/Unusual Suspects Youth Journalism Fellowship

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Los Angeles is widely considered the city of fame and fortune. Neon lights and red carpets studded with stilettos and silk. Superstars define the standards of beauty, success, and happiness. Artificiality is at its finest, with the employment of technology, from surgery to filters, raising and skewing the bar even higher towards inhumane appearances. Hollywood’s glamor has been projected, recorded, sent, and live-streamed all around the globe. But that fantasy’s flip side is the traffic, the cement-structured skylines, and the crippling poverty that has been etched into the city since its beginnings.

Los Angeles has always been a city of hope, filled with try-hards and dreamers. I came to Los Angeles like so many have, pursuing opportunity. But the city that I found was not that of La La Land. Instead, I arrived to a city that is ridden with the pain of unfilled expectations and undeniable human suffering, the result of working for a system built by those in power, for those in power. With too high prices, infrastructure that pre-necessitates wealth, and a hyper-competitive environment created by scarcity, Los Angeles didn’t feel like a dream, but a nightmare.

I, Daniel Blake, showing at the Fountain Theatre until November 24th uncovers the brutal realities of playing a rigged game by portraying the travesty that is the United Kingdom’s public welfare system. Although based in Britain, the universality of capitalism and competition rings especially true in the stilted and stereotyped city of Los Angeles. Simon Levy’s thoughtful direction results in a touching and truthful theatrical adaptation of Ken Loach’s 2016 film.

The joint storylines of Daniel, played humorously and empathetically by JD Cullum, and the endearingly raw and unapologetically complex Katie, played by Phylicia Saunders, is the heartbreaking story of two families stuck within the trap of a system built to confine them. An ensemble of mostly non-descript characters played by alternating actors creates the transactional and impersonal world they exist within.

JD Cullum, Adam Segaller, Philicia Saunders (Photo by Cooper Bates)

Daniel, an aging carpenter who recently lost his wife, is unable to return to work after multiple heart attacks. He finds himself stuck in a systemic loophole, denied disability support, and unable to hold employment. In desperation, he signs up for the U.K.’s unemployment assistance program requiring him to spend at least 30 hours a week sourcing a job that he medically cannot accept. Walking from store to store, he faces rejection, scornful attacks on his identity, and technological barriers preventing him from retrieving his paycheck. While sitting in line to speak with a representative at the job assistance office, he encounters Katie and her young daughter Daisy (Makara Gamble). Recently relocated, the two arrive late to their interview time slot because of the bus system and are told they can reschedule after a four-week period. Jobless, contactless, and hungry Katie begs for help. Seeing them denied, Daniel stands up for the inequity resulting in both parties being thrown out. Their happen-stance alliance grows into a mutually beneficial friendship that highlights the impossibility of life in between the cracks of a crumbling system.

Although their situations are very different, struggles of poverty and joblessness are equalizing and demoralizing, stripping them physically and emotionally of their humanity. Katie epitomizes this notion by saying, “We don’t matter, we are just noise”. Huddled around a makeshift heater- one of Daniel’s many crafty solutions to a lack of resources- in an empty apartment, in the dead of winter, he makes light of the situation by comparing them to penguins. Grouped together to try and conserve warmth, little Daisy is wrapped in five blankets and the trio find shreds of solace through their shared experiences.

With Daniel and Katie’s friendship tested over and over, they struggle to confide in each other, revealing how poverty can be an isolating experience, steeped in shame and competition. In a particularly trying moment, Katie admits to Daniel that she has been stealing menstrual supplies just to stop bleeding; according to the United Nations, one in three women in the United States struggle to afford period products. Realities like this are highlighted by quotes that appear on the backdrop of the stage. Projectionist Nicholas Santiago utilized three separate screens to create the inner city bricks, share quotations and facts, and even allow for live spray painting which is the culmination of Daniel’s frustration.

Rejected from unemployment, unable to appeal the decision, and penniless, Daniel finds himself on the street, alone and filled with rage towards a system that effectively denies his existence and problematizes his humanity. In an act of public resistance, he spray paints, “I, Daniel Blake demand my appeal date before I starve and change the shite music on the phones”. This proclamation serves as testament to his vulnerability and his humor-derived resilience.

JD Cullum (Photo by Cooper Bates)

Katie too struggles to put food on the table. Driven to desperation, she stuffs beans in her mouth, straight from a food shelf and by the handful, uncooked, out of the can. This testament to her state of desperation ultimately drives her to work within a female escort service. Throughout the show, Daniel insists that she ask him for support, although we quickly realize as he pawns the last of his furniture that he is not any more well-off.

Fighting for the same jobs and embarrassed by their inability to provide for their needs, Katie and Daniel struggle without access to technology and transportation, and the shame that comes with it. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority estimated in 2023 that over 75,500 people are on the streets any given night. While the staggering prevalence of homelessness should motivate action, it can create complacency and denial instead. One of my favorite lines from the play, “Change is just a word, they say it but they don’t mean it” echoed through my head for days after viewing. How many people do I pass on the street without so much as a glance? How many tents do I drive by without considering the reality of the human life residing within? How many more people would it take to get my attention? Or the attention of the system? How could we ever force it to change?

Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Avenue, LA.; Mon, Fri, Sat 8pm, Sun 2pm. Through Nov. 24th. Runtime: 100 minutes. https://www.fountaintheatre.com/events/i-daniel-blake