Sydney: Love and Money

Reviewed by Ash Walker

Sydneysiders now work some of the longest hours in the world. A lifestyle of working and accumulating material possessions consumes our every waking hour. Love and Money by British playwright Dennis Kelly arrives in Sydney to hold a timely mirror up to our consumer society.

David (Bryce Youngman) is a hard working sales rep whose marriage ends in tragedy after his wife Jess (Angela Hattersley) kills herself. She just couldn’t control her shopping addiction. Ironically, David was out test-driving a brand new Audi at the time. In trying to find out why this happened we may uncover the dark, decaying heart of the self absorbed “me” generation.

Another one of Kelly’s plays, Debris, was staged at the Old Fitz last year. Both works are fragmented and monologue heavy. Debris was kept afloat by the poetry of its dark imagery but Love and Money has no such help. Its characters talk at you instead of to each other, often lecturing you about the pitfalls of a materialistic lifestyle. These two plays together with Terrorism at the Darlinghurst Theatre last year illustrate a worrying trend towards plays that tend to hypothesise on thematic concerns rather than engage the audience with a compelling narrative.

Parents (Christopher Stollery and Diana McLean) and co-workers (Sean Hall and Beth Aubrey) seem to expand on ideas rather than enhance the plot. This is illustrated in a scene where all characters are on stage. They pour out confessions about the emptiness of their working lives in a series of interconnected monologues. You feel like you’re being hit over the head.

At times the direction seems uninspired. Mother and Father stand at opposite ends of the stage speaking directly to the audience. There is no psychical interaction between them so interest in the scene wanes. The one prop used is a laptop with images of email accounts and soccer matches. The laptop symbolises the dual themes of the 24/7 working society and the constant need to accumulate material possessions. Too often however, it distracts the audience from the actors.

Love and Money is a rather disjointed and heavy-handed attempt to warn us against the evils of consumer society.

Written By: Dennis Kelly
Directed By: Steven Rassios
Cast: Bryce Youngman, Diana McLean, Christopher Stollery, Beth Aubrey, Sean Hall, Angela Hattersley.

Image by Kate Panzetta. Featuring Christopher Stollery and Beth Aubrey

Old Fitzroy Hotel Theatre until 6 October 2007