Walking Exploits production of Serious Money

Serious Money
Chapter Arts 27th April - 1st May
Aberystwyth Arts Centre 5th May

Serious  Money Trailer http://www.wakingexploits.co.uk/content/serious-money.html

Thatcher’s in power, and the City is heading toward financial meltdown.
Caryl Churchill’s satirical play Serious Money was brought to Chapter Arts by theatre company Walking Exploits, as their first production and they brought the house down. Intriguing, dynamic and intense action fills the theatre as you take your seats and continues throughout.


Serious Money is a play as apt now as it was in the late 80’s: the environment of suspicion surrounding the banks, stockbrokers and traders as a result of their current fall from grace. Nestled amongst the upper echelons of the American and London financial worlds with alcohol and drugs on speed dial, greed is the driving force. It is a serious comedy of insider trading, scandal and apparent suicide where the world of the characters slowly collapses around them as they trade to within an inch of their lives, and their money. Dealer Jake Todd is found dead in an apparent suicide as a result of ‘insider dealing’ but his sister Scilla suspects otherwise and begins to investigate, as the puzzle pieces appear his crimes become apparent and it is his ill gotten millions she turns to searching for. Alongside the hunt for the dead trader’s millions is a second voracious hunt for power and money in the acquisition of innocent little Albion by Billy Corman and his double crossing investors, a bid in which Jake Todd was involved, as more and more floods to the surface and as Albion at its White Knight fight back moral vanishes and the bid fails spectacularly.


With 20 characters shared between 8 actors the show is nothing short of complex yet with swift simple costume changes the actors melted from one character to another – their accents transforming fluidly. The stage is full of chaos: phones ringing, character’s having two or three conversations at once: gesturing, swearing and shouting across the stage as they fight to make more and more money. There was a regular stream of food being eaten, alcohol and coffee consumed as the characters, adding an immediacy and realism to the activities.


Whilst I did not understand the purpose of the grass floor it did add colour and having a bare stage floor would have taken something from the production. At times the pace picks up so quickly that it is hard to focus on a single exchange and the streams of numbers and statistics flying past were confusing but all as part of the play to represent the financial world. Even though I did not understand the trading language I didn’t really care: the lyrical language, fast pace and satirical barbs kept me utterly engrossed and laughing. Particularly the endings of both acts: where trading sessions transform into intense, in your face rapping sessions, creating a platform in which to close the high energy piece on a high.
"These are the days of our lives"


Walking Exploits and their director Mathilde López re-create the balance between comedy and dark poetry at the centre of Serious Money in this hilarious, modernised version: it leaves the audience catching their breath at the end. They have done well in bringing a relevant, contemporary work to the stage and pulling it off with panache, especially as this is the first time Serious Money has been seen on a Welsh stage.