The Conquest of the South Pole, Arcola Theatre, review What to do when you're unemployed? Go to the South Pole of course. And one of the beautiful things in Manfred Karge's 1986 play about a group of disaffected unemployed men is that just saying it is pretty much all it takes. Slupianek, performed with a twitching, energetic intensity by O-T Fagbenie, is the leader of a gang of friends who are going nowhere in life. He has dreams, however, and has been inspired by the story of Norwegian Roald Amundsen, the man who lead a team to the South Pole in 1911, beating Captain Scott. Instead of sitting waiting for a job to come along, Slupianek and his friends decide to focus on the same polar journey - in their imagination at least. The game - with white sheets in the attic as icebergs and coats stolen from the local hiking shop - fills the men with purpose and direction. Suddenly they have something to wake up for in the morning. But when one of the group rebels, shouting that they should be playing Captain Scott and his troupe because "we do failures better, they're our staple diet" it highlights just how deep the feeling of being hopeless can penetrate. This isn't a depressing show though: the men's situation and their rough, high-speed exchanges have humour, humanity and poignance rolled together. Karge's language is a great burst of poetic brilliance. It tumbles out of the mouths of the ensemble cast in fast rhyming rhythm. It's bolshie, full of bravura and feels fresh, despite the script's age. The East German Karge originally wrote The Conquest of the South Pole before the Berlin wall came down and it was produced for the first time in Britain in 1988. It's clear why Stephen Unwin - who originally directed Alan Cumming in the role of Slupianek in its British premiere - has decided to revive it now. With the number of people claiming jobseekers allowance increasing in March to 1.61 million and double dip recession in the UK there's a tug of recognition throughout the play's ninety minutes at how hard life can get. But Karge offers a glimmer of hope and shows us that, no matter what, it's vital to dream.