Love and Money | Theatre
Theatre This article is more than 17 years oldReviewLove and Money
This article is more than 17 years oldRoyal Exchange Studio, ManchesterWhile David was out, test-driving a silver Audi, his wife, Jess, was trying to kill herself because of her shopping habit. David's first thought is that "£70,000 of debt has just died". Dennis Kelly's play is a modern morality tale about debt and desire, the high cost of living and the things we buy to fill up the void. True happiness is not just love, but an MFI kitchen as well.
Even in grief, Jess's parents are eaten up with envy because the woman in the grave next to their daughter's will have a bigger, more expensive headstone. David's ex-girlfriend, Val, knows that it is money, not love, that makes the world go round and that cash is power. For Duncan and Deb, need is a transaction like any other. Jess doesn't want her future to be scruffy, she wants life to be all shiny like it is on the telly.
Kelly's play is like a shattered mirror that has been glued back together so that it is slightly wonky. The wonkiness makes it all the more interesting, as if what it reflects back is not the outer body but the inner soul. Kelly keeps adjusting the time-frame and the mirror, so characters and scenes swim in and out of view. It doesn't always work - sometimes it feels slightly out of focus - but Kelly takes the fact that Britons have the highest levels of personal debt in Europe and transforms it into something almost metaphysical. In Matthew Dunster's outstanding production, the pitiless stars still twinkle in the face of tragedy.
· Until Saturday. Box office: 0161-833 9833.
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