Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Do theatres actually read scripts before agreeing to stage them?

Plus: the first half hour of Southwark Playhouse's Tarantula is dramatic and thrilling. The rest is sweet but dull

Kirsten Foster & Tyger Drew-Honey in Shaun McKenna's daft new play Rocky Road. Photo: Simon Annand 
issue 08 May 2021

Money is a new internet play about financial corruption starring Mel Giedroyc. She appears on-screen for less time than it takes to eat a Malteser. Giedroyc plays the boss of a palm-oil firm that wipes out orangutan habitats in Asia and wants to launder its reputation by donating cash to a London charity. A million quid is on the table.

The charity staff meet via Zoom to discuss the gift. But first they brief each other about their latest activities which, predictably enough, consist of stoking grievances and spreading self-pity. Their charitable aims include ‘tackling local loneliness’, and ‘breaking down barriers based on age, race and gender’. The meeting then moves to the big question: should they accept cash from a firm that kills cuddly animals? Obviously not. Equally obviously, they shouldn’t even discuss it.

Do theatres actually read scripts before agreeing to stage them?

The dramatist, Isla van Tricht, seems not to have spotted that any disgruntled member of staff could easily destroy the organisation by leaking the contents of the meeting.

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