The Man-Machine

I have been raving about the Shunt theatre company’s current production Money to people for months now, so the announcement that the current run has been extended until September 25th seems like a good excuse for letting my enthusiasm spill over onto this blog. Now there really can be no excuse for missing it: get your tickets here (7.30pm performance) and here (9.45 performance).

‘Money’ is more than just a theatre production: it is a whole three-floor “machine” set that encloses the audience, plunging them into a completely immersive sensory experience that uses sound, light, darkness, disorientation and confusion as well as all of the usual tricks of the theatre trade to dismantle our boom and bust culture in a story loosely inspired by Emile Zola’s novel comment on nineteenth century France’s own banking crisis ‘L’Argent’. We were lucky enough to go in the company of our own resident situationist An’Unexpectacle who true to his nature (and without wishing to spoil the surprise) made a valiant attempt to get involved himself; on a similar note I am posting this little stream-of-consciousness video trailer in the hope that it is not too revealing:

MONEY BY SHUNT from Susanne Dietz on Vimeo.

The Shunt people have also recently opened a new lounge / bar / artspace (the old one was legendary) down at London Bridge (Joiner Street), which gives us somewhere exciting to go in the event of a free Friday or Saturday night, now that all the clubs are closing down… Get tickets for the lounge here.