HB: [Opens office door....] Oh, so sorry, Mr. Carruthers, I didn't realize you were staying late at the office.... Wasn't it tonight you had a theater engagement?
AC: Yes it was, old man. Uhhh, what was your name again?
HB: Benson, guvnor, Harvey Benson. Twenty years I've been janitor to this building, ten of them for your arbitrage firm.
AC: Well, you peon, you're hardly worth noticing. At least, that's what this play I saw tonight would make me believe.
HB: And what play was that, guvnor?
AC: Serious Money, a British social satire by Caryl Churchill. She portrays us in the money business as deceitful, shallow, and crude. I mean, I always give you some tip at Christmas, don't I... Hubert?
HB: Uh, Harvey, sir. Harvey Benson. Janitor for twenty, uh, right. Well, I think I saw a bonus five years ago, but ever since then it's been something about "recent economic downturns" or some such.
AC: Well, you know, the recession and all.... At least you've still got your job... for now.
HB: Ahem, but about that play, guvnor -- I won a ticket in our housing project lottery just last week. What did you think of it?
AC: Churchill took it upon herself to classify brokers and our style of work with scathing remarks. The play centers around a hostile takeover and the murder that it causes. All in all, this seemed to repeat many of the same unfair, if I may say so, statements that have been said of the stock market dealers in all countries. The web of intrigue that she has her characters weaving is almost too much for her to hold up.
HB: Yes, I thought the information overload produced in the stock trading scenes and rapid talk in jargon showed the speed and complication of the world the characters inhabit. Everything is negotiable -- family, friends, even native country.
AC: Spoken like a true janitor.
HB: Well, I majored in English in college... this was the only job I could get.
AC: I was a mana-stud myself. Anyway, I felt that the production did a good job with a difficult script. Churchill created the right atmosphere -- conniving, complex, and corrupt -- and Main Street Theater's production added a dimension with its choice of music. I can't say that I know what they played though, being an upstanding member of my community.
HB: It was heavy on Yes, with admixtures of Pink Floyd, Pet Shop Boys, etc.: lots of British bands with lyrics about getting filthy rich. It provided a nice background for the jiving stockbrokers who carried around the furniture for Kathleen Jircik's spare but effective set. A few pieces changed from an English patio to an executive suite, while others served as permanent offices, reference points in the mad swirl of the market. The theater-in-the-round served perfectly as the "trading pit," the phones on the theater's support pillars only adding to the illusion.
AC: You know a lot about this theater for one who doesn't get out much, Harold.
HB: Uh, Harvey, sir, Harvey Benson. Janitor for twenty, uh, right. Anyway, the lighting, designed by Susan Diane Koontz and Rice University alumna Gretchen Myers, was also effective, don't you think?
AC: I noticed particularly the spotlights that were often used for some of the monologues that Churchill is fond of. She used them primarily to give the audience information and they were effective for the most part, but by the end, I wanted to hear some more dialogue. While each of the main characters had at least one monologue, Zac Zackerman (John Guerra) seemed to function as a sort of narrator. I got really confused, though, because he came back with glasses on and I didn't know why.
HB: Not surprising, for a mana-stud. Like most of Churchill's work, Serious Money makes extensive use of double-casting. Most of the actors show up as low-level traders in L.I.F.F.E. (London International Financial Futures Exchange), and they become officers in various companies and even various countries, from farmers to government inspectors (Mark McGriff), even from Restoration British actor to family patriarch to harried British executive to vengeful American banker (David Keel). If you don't keep one eye glued to your program and a great deal of brainpower focussed on the plot, you're liable to get lost.
AC: Oh...my wife held the programs. I was slightly annoyed because the play tantalized the audience with the prospect of a murder mystery after Jake Todd (Rodney Walsworth), an extremely successful broker and master insider trader, is killed. Churchill spends so much time maligning the stock market, the goverment's reaction to the goings-on in the marker, and society's tolerance of it, that she doesn't resolve the crime. She prefers to duck the question and blame that on the market too.
HB: Ah, but that exposes part of Churchill's basic philosophy. Scilla Todd (Lisa Morrison) begins the play in a quest for her brother's killers, but ends it only interested in his money. Justice is sacrificed to greed. I thought Morrison did a fine job, showing Scilla's fall from grace, as it were, though the way Churchill wraps up her character seems a trifle incongruous. She adds a wig to play Biddulph, the "white knight" who devises defense plans for a corporate takeover victim, though that smaller character is less well developed.
AC: I agree with you, Billings. I-
HB: Benson, sir, Harvey Benson. Janitor....
AC: For twenty years... right, whatever. I was also impressed by three of actor David Keel's four characters. Although his British accent wandered at times, his portrayal of Greville Todd, Jake's father, was solid, while his Duckett (the nervous British executive) was enough to give me an ulcer. He also gave a good performance as an American banker focussed on revenge for his forced exit from the Klein-Merrick firm.
HB: Rodney Walsworth served as the usual Main Street mainstay, playing both the infamous, young, slick Jake Todd and, in counterpoint, the aging, retired financier Frosby, left behind by the newer, lustier breed of broker. But Harry Brewer shines as Corman, the vicious corporate raider who prompts much of the plot through his attempted takeover of Albion Products, the asinine Durkfeld who takes over the American firm Klein-Merrick from within, or just the crass and ill-behaved dealer Grimes who shares tales, philosophy, and drinks with Jake and Scilla Todd.
AC: There were many fine performances in this show, with even the minor characters creating real and solid personalities. But I want you to do some more cleaning: that bathroom reeks.... But before you go, I want to know what you thought about the seats you bought.
HB: Say, that rhymes -- twice, even! I can see Churchill's rhymed couplets in Serious Money must have affected you. Her poetry varied from the ridiculous to the sublime, sometimes seeming to be there more for cutesy effects than humor or dramatic counterpoint. But overall the tactic works well in sustaining interest through tricky dialogue and unfamiliar jargon, and distancing the play from being too real.
AC: Still, I was a little offended by what she rhymed Duckett with. I mean, this play has curses left and right. I heard that enough in college; I don't need to hear it now. The play contains strong language, and that can be a major turnoff. But that might be fine with one like you, Humphrey.
HB: Hubert, sir, Hubert... Humphrey... HARVEY, sir, Harvey Benson. Well, shall I clean up these papers on your desk?
AC: Sure. Do me a favor and shred them.
HB: Gladly. [Shovelling them into large SEC file folder....]
Serious Money, by Caryl Churchill, plays Thurs-Sat at 8 p.m., Sun at 4 p.m., through April 14, Main Street Theater, on Times Boulevard off Kirby in the Village. For reservations, call 524-6706. Ask about student rush tickets.