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journalism → support → readers
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we → purchase → commission
Serious Money, Carolyn Churchill’s dazzling examination of Thatcher’s big bang on the financial world full of sex, power and corruption – think Rivals only with the Stock Exchange instead of TV studios - is back onstage in London, at The Courtyard Theatre in Hoxton.
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examination → think → Hoxton
Not one of the biggest stages for a production which has a cast of 12 playing over 40 characters in a sprawling near-3 hour epic – told in rhyme! - but one which reflects the ambitions of the new company behind it: Mad Spirit Productions.
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which → have → it
Created by brother and sister duo Douglas and Charlotte Taylor, Mad Spirit are doing things differently.
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Spirit → create → things
Despite being a young company, their attitude is about going large, with work that is playful, adventurous and yes – as anyone who has been to the show will attest – really rather mad.
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who → go → show
“I think one of the best things about laughter in a room is that it brings us all into the same space mentally and physically, we all find this connection,” says Charlotte, “Laughter can be such a bizarre visceral thing and it’s somewhere where we all meet when we find something funny.
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we → think → something
When that happens in a room, I think that's magic.”
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that → happen → room
“We're named after what Oberon says to Puck in Midsummer Night’s Dream,” says Douglas backstage after the show a few nights ago (Serious Money runs until 19th September, so be quick), “’How now, mad spirit!
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Money → name → September
Which kind of says it all for a clearly driven yet playful pair who are creating these almost childlike worlds and then inviting actors and audiences to immerse themselves in it.
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who → say → it
Their family is from Serbia and moved to the UK during the war, where they, “moved around different council houses.”
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they → move → houses
Their father became a cab driver but the children went in different directions – Charlotte studied under Philippe Gaulier at his clown school in France, while Douglas studied literature at Oxford.
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Douglas → become → Oxford
After doing their own things for a few years, they finally decided to go all-in on their own theatre company, beginning with a production of Midsummer last year.
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they → do → Midsummer
Immediately they had a different approach to your average company:
“We did it on the Midsummer solstice in Hackney Wick woods.
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We → have → woods
We had 15 people, musicians, fairy lights, no budget, all in the woods, and had a transfer of that.
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We → have → that
Then we did the Scottish play six weeks later, a cast of 13 who were also manning the bar.
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who → do → bar
With each, it was a combined thing with me and Charlotte: I'm really into literature and fidelity to the text – so our Shakespeare is like, you're doing Midsummer, so you're in the woods - and Charlotte introduced clowning and play into that, and have games that allow performances freedom within that kind of academic rigour.
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that → combine → rigour
Serious Money now follows exactly this approach.
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Money → follow → approach
Courtyard Theatre is close to the financial district, and Douglas stresses the importance of remaining site specific.
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Douglas → stress → importance
But it’s Churchill’s text that remains the heart, and you can see why this breakneck, high-wire, extravagant play appealed.
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play → ’ → ?
“When we read it, it was just the most energetic, wild day, it just leaps out from the page,” says Douglas, “It just felt like it could really kind of explode, it felt like it had so much to it.”
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it → read → it
Assembling the cast, some of whom have never acted before, was a joy: “The large cast means there's a lot of energy in the room.
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cast → assemble → room
We love to free everyone up.
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We → love → everyone
Trying to bring everyone back to what we were like as children.
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we → try → children
What did we find funny?
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we → find → ?
What did we enjoy?
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we → enjoy → What
What were our ways to communicate with people?
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ways → communicate → people
That's what we try and explore.
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we → try → what
People can have so many blocks that stops them from being truly spontaneous and connecting with an audience…
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that → have → audience
the rooms that we work in are just so much fun, we really allow people to go with a crazy idea.”
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people → work → idea
Charlotte adds, “I think our rehearsal rooms and the way we work is quite similar to what we would expect of an audience: we don't really go in with anything.
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we → add → anything
It's your experience, so we don't need anyone to react a certain way or feel a certain thing.
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anyone → need → thing
We think about, ‘how do I play and change with the room?’”
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I → think → More
The results in Serious Money are performances that don’t hold back, and particularly in the cases of Felicity Green as Scilla, Ben Pugh-Cook (in four roles) and Vedika Haralalka (in three roles), its a showcase for clear superstars in waiting.
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that → hold → waiting
You sense that as this company continues, it will become a favoured one for actors, a vehicle for exploration, connection, and attention.
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it → sense → exploration
The energy is so heightened, and in that way it's meant to give the audience the feeling of being on the trading floor, those constant hits that you get of the rhyme, of the character changes, the energy of the jokes, which imitates that dopamine-fuelled 80s trading floor.”
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which → mean → floor
Once this production is out of the way they’re looking at originals – one in the works is about mysticism, another is a farce.
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another → look → mysticism
“If you just do what you really think is the funnest thing to do, then things just gather around it.
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things → do → it
There's that JD Salinger quote from Rise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters, when Buddy Glass is like, ‘I don't know what to write.’
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I → be → what
And his friend goes, ‘what would Buddy Glass most want to read?
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Glass → go → what
…and 9 more, not listed.
The Aporia
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