Caryl Churchill's dramatic satire of the financial excesses and corporate venality that followed the 1986 Big Bang is the first of three plays in Radio 3's "Money Talks" season.
Listen at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011ty39
The City has changed since the Big Bang of 1986 and the sudden deregulation of the financial markets.
The Square Mile has been invaded by white knights and corporate raiders. And ambitious young traders, like sister and brother Scilla and Jake Todd, are living the high life.
Hot-shot dealer Billy Corman is plotting to take over the unsuspecting company Albion, aided and abetted by this new breed of yuppie traders. But his plans go awry when trader Jake Todd is found dead and the Department of Trade and Industry is brought in to investigate. Could Jake's death be linked to his insider dealing?
Serious Money conveys the feverish, amoral addictiveness of speculation, and brings to life the swaggering, foul-mouthed cacophony of the Eighties' stockmarket.
It is followed in subsequent weeks in the "Money Talks"season by new productions of Edward Bulwer-Lytton's nineteenth century satire about inherited wealth, 'Money' and George Bernard Shaw's play "Widowers' Houses" about the moral contradictions of business. As part of "Money Talks", The Essay "It Talks" chronicles the rise of money in human civilisation from cattle wealth to flexible plastic and The Sunday Feature "Europe, the Art of Austerity" explores artistic response to hard times,
This new version of Serious Money is adapted for radio and directed by Emma Harding
CAST
Scilla Todd ….. Hattie Morahan
Jake Todd ….. Bertie Carvel
Zak Zackerman ….. Tobias Menzies
Corman ….. David Horovitch
Greville Todd ….. Brian Bowles
Jacinta Condor ….. Melanie Bond
Marylou Baines ….. Jane Whittenshaw
Grimes/ Frosby ….. Daniel Rabin
TK/ Nigel Ajibala ….. Nyasha Hatendi
All other parts played by members of the company.
With musical accompaniment from Colin Sell.
A major force in British theatre, Caryl Churchill is one of the most celebrated playwrights of her generation. Her plays include 'Cloud Nine', 'Top Girls' and 'A Number'. 'Serious Money' premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in 1987.