Love and Money (Oberon Modern Plays)

Product Information

Dennis Kelly is an internationally acclaimed playwright. Stage plays include Debris (Theatre 503 and Battersea Arts Centre, 2003 & 2004); Osama the Hero (Paines Plough and Hampstead Theatre 2004 & 2005; winner of the Meyer Whitworth Award 2006); After the End (Paines Plough, Traverse Theatre, Bush Theatre, UK and international tour, 2005); Love and Money (Young Vic Theatre and Manchester Royal Exchange, 2006); Taking Care of Baby (Hampstead Theatre and Birmingham Repertory Theatre, 2006; winner of the John Whiting Award 2007); DNA (NT Connections, National Theatre, 2007-8); Orphans (Paines Plough, Traverse Theatre, Soho Theatre and Birmingham Rep, 2009; winner of a Fringe First and Herald Angel Award 2009) and The Gods Weep (Royal Shakespear Company and Hampstead Theatre).

everything and then I peeled it off the paper, you have to be very careful because the body's quite One of the best new plays of the year...One leaves the theatre with the exhilarating certainty that one has encountered a dramatist blessed with both rare skill and a profound understanding of the way we live now." Having heard his side of the story, we begin to focus on Jess and see both how happy and brittle she can be. It also becomes apparent that David's possessiveness did not lend itself to the achievement of a long and happy marriage.Love and Money builds up into a rather stark picture of Yuppie life today. Its overriding force seems to be neither love nor money but anger, expressed even more forcefully by Jess's parents than the young, once happy couple themselves.

The production carries a collectively strong cast, but Sara Lloyd-Gregory gives a solid performance as the naïve Jess. She is completely endearing, displaying effortless humour tinged with a hint of self-destruction. Joanna Simpkins is also a stand-out, naturally and skilfully funny. delicate, and then I took a scalpel that I have for handicrafts and I slit its little belly open and I tugged out

About Me

This is a play about death and Big Ideas and what Ed Miliband might call predatory capitalism, but it’s really funny, too. And I don’t think that’s an accident. The Godfather of modern political theatre Bertolt Brecht believed laughter and fun were essential to the political power of theatre, and this production certainly makes the most of the dark humour which accompanies the vitriolic critique. Authoritative and imaginative direction from Matthew Dunster, and an able and focused cast of six provide a stimulating concoction of wit and tragedy which keeps us engrossed even when the subject matter is unnerving, or when it shifts somewhat abruptly. Although each of the scenes is of a uniformly high standard, the best is where David is being interviewed for a job by an old college chum, Val, played with gloating superiority, perfect timing, and agile wordplay by Claudie Blakley. It's a scene powered by witty, sharp and hard-hitting dialogue. When David says "I don't want you to do me any favours", Val retorts pointedly "But I am doing you a favour". Val derides David's English degree (she has one in Business Studies, of course) and is in no doubt about just what is important to her and the rest of the world: cash. "I photosynthesise cash" she says. There is a surreal scene with 5 characters denoted only by numbers (played by members of the cast) who appear to symbolise the conflict and conscience within Jess, who occasionally responds to their cascading tirade of remarks and that's the only thing that works and the worst thing is that when you catch them they're still alive so Dennis Kelly doesn't believe in making life simple for the paying customer. That has been part of the attraction of his contemporary works such as After the End and Osama the Hero, which look at life today from the strangest perspectives.

On the whole the play was generally well reviewed and hailed as a truthful analysis of the destructive nature of materialism receiving 4 stars in The Independent. [5] and Charles Spencer for the Daily Telegraph said; Some of the meaning of Love and Money may take more than one viewing or reading to come through. However, there is enough to wrestle with at first sight to provoke thought about the rat race and its victims and to make the play well worth a try. I’m just so / looking forward’ are some of the last words of the performance and Jess’ final speech, but in the world of the play they are the first, since we’ve ended up at the beginning of Jess and David’s relationship, before everything goes wrong. It is a strength of Pailing’s performance that we meet Jess halfway through the play with her frenzied love of shopping in full bloom, announcing that as a child she discovered she was an alien, and we watch her manic personality gradually shrink until we are left with only the seeds of what we know will become her addiction. As she speaks, more quietly now, (and places her make-up in a bag) we can see she will become a woman standing outside a shop transfixed on a handbag, but, crucially, we also see her when she looks like all of us, that is, just liking ‘things’ and wanting a ‘neater’ life. Her acting matches the tragic effect of Kelly analeptic tale, where we finish with what actually turns out to be a really crushing sense of sadness as Jess tells of her excitement for the future.

Last week I caught a mouse in my flat, I have mice, which is something I don't really, I don't really like The confessional mode is further developed when we join two bereaved parents who horrifyingly and graphically admit to the desecration of the neighbouring memorial where their daughter is buried because it's become too ornate, overshadowing their daughter's gravestone. Other scenes focus on Jess and her consumerist aspirations, and a strangely humorous conversation between a sex-obsessed man, and a girl who puts wallpaper paste in the office coffee machine, and sends out invoices with male genitalia photocopied on the reverse. Inventively written to turn what many will see as a dry subject into something more compelling, 'Love and Money' is a long overdue theatrical vehicle to warn us of the burdens of debt, but it also forces us to re-examine what we mean by happiness. Though it's a fine example of social commentary, my ingrained cynicism tells me that it's impact will be lightly felt, if at all, out there in the wider community. Nevertheless, it's a commendable and eminently watchable production with messages that really do matter, and is therefore well worth a visit.

Love and Money by Dennis Kelly is a difficult play to get to grips with. While there is a plot running through it about a young couple, Jess and David, crippled by Jess’s debts, the play seems disjointed, often becoming more of a series of explorative sketches around the opposing themes of love and money. Nonetheless, great praise must go to a company who can take a difficult play and pull it off with a level of acting, direction and design this high. NICHOLAS DE JONGH for THE EVENING STANDARD says, "In Matthew Dunster's stylish production Love and Money offers food for uncomfortable thoughts." PAUL TAYLOR for THE INDEPENDENT says, "Stylish production." CHARLES SPENCER for THE DAILY TELEGRAPH says, "One of the best new plays of the year...One leaves the theatre with the exhilarating certainty that one has encountered a dramatist blessed with both rare skill and a profound understanding of the way we live now." SAM MARLOWE for THE TIMES says, "Sharp, sad new play...searing direction."As in Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along” (albeit without song), the scenario, once set up, steadily reverses over the course of the evening. Thus, by the poignant end, aud’s knowledge of the outcome is contrasted with Jess’ earlier, hopeful self, dreaming of a life like that promised by TV. Father when he finds himself resenting an elaborate memorial to a stranger for overshadowing his daughter's grave, he destroys it Duncan a sleazy 'agent' who engages separately with both Jess and David, offering opportunities in pornography to relieve debt