A National Theatre should tackle national issues, and that is certainly what David Hare’s new play does, dutifully auditing the economic turmoil of the past two years.

The approach is similar to that of Hare’s recent dramas such as The Permanent Way and Stuff Happens. Interviews with key individuals have been deftly edited and assembled into a montage that resembles a passionate political documentary.

In a fresh development, though, the central character here is Hare himself — portrayed by a donnish Anthony Calf. The almost constant presence of this figure makes the play seem like a lecture, but indemnifies the author against the charge of hidden bias. The stage is bare, to suggest a stripping away of extraneous detail; Hare wants us to know he is not drowning in the flummery of the business world. Meanwhile projected images devised by Jon Driscoll and Gemma Carrington display the metaphors and formulae by which we know that world.

Over the course of just under two hours we are treated to a procession of opinions. These come from sources as disparate as economist Myron Scholes, journalists, traders, pioneers of private equity, Labour MP Jon Cruddas, George Soros and FSA chairmen Howard Davies and Adair Turner. All the while Hare asks questions — some naďve, others probing.

The explanations are contradictory and complex, littered with references to arcane practices and their proponents. Alan Greenspan is quoted as saying “the whole intellectual edifice has collapsed”, but structural corruption would be a less evasive diagnosis, and Greenspan’s own influential views are intriguingly linked to his affection for the “objectivist” philosophies of Ayn Rand.

Looking like a youthful version of Hare, Anthony Calf holds proceedings together confidently, and there is nice work throughout the company, with Jeff Rawle particularly engaging as a counsellor from the Citizens’ Advice Bureau — helpfully informing us that we should always keep up our council tax payments because “the bailiffs who collect council tax, they’ve been privatised, so they’re complete bastards”.

There are few such moments of humour to leaven the play’s dry subject matter, but the real problem is that it proves so diffuse. We feel we are on a whirlwind tour of the boulevards of finance; the byways are left unexplored. Characters are shunted onstage, prosaically introduced, then withdrawn. The drama lacks a true emotional centre and a decisive argumentative punch.

Questions are raised, but not properly answered. Still, as one expects of David Hare, they are important questions. What’s to stop the mistakes being repeated? Who, finally, is accountable for the economy? Hare leaves us wondering if governments and regulators shouldn’t become better at resisting the power of “yes” and learning to say an emphatic, custodial “no”.
Until 28 October. Information 020 7452 3000.