Greed, excess and corruption form the evil core of Caryl Churchill’s satire Serious Money, now playing at the Courtyard Theatre in Hoxton.
Mad Spirit Productions has brought this 1980s hit back to the stage with a cast of 11 playing more than 40 characters. Set shortly after the 1986 Big Bang deregulation that unleashed a fresh wave of animal spirits into the City, the story weaves together tales of corporate raids, insider trading and ruthless arbitrage.
This world takes in people from all walks of life and ties them together in a web of amoral venality – until the web is torn and things begin to fall apart, which is where Serious Money starts. As the audience revels in the ensuing orgy of backstabbing and frenzied efforts to grab as much money as possible before the music stops, there may be a split second’s reflection on how little has changed in the intervening four decades.
Breathlessly paced and almost entirely in rhyme, the script is a tricky one to get right. Unfortunately, this is where the production, directed by the sister-and-brother team Charlotte and Douglas Taylor, falls down. The show started 20 minutes late on press night and things went downhill from there, with lapses in basic stagecraft, including serious problems with timing.
The acting is also of highly variable quality. Ben Pugh-Cook as banker Zac Zackerman and Felicity Green as futures trader Scilla Todd are magnetic, delivering superb performances. But a number of the other actors ham it up so much that some scenes degenerate into rather painful slapstick, with American accents that slide all over the map and partway back across the Atlantic.
For all its faults, the evening is highly enjoyable: the script has some great lines and the tempo keeps you on the edge of your seat. With luck, the cast will get more of the basics right as the run settles.
Serious Money
Until 19 September 2026
Courtyard Theatre
Bowling Green Walk, 40 Pitfield Street N1 6EU
Running time: 2hrs 45mins, including an interval
