Oh goodness, a play about the economy? I can’t deal. But It’s the Economy, Stupid! had come highly recommended, so I did some research on Joe Sellman-Leava. He has a track record of two successful Fringe shows in the award-winning Labels and Fan Boy – so along I trot. What follows is a surprisingly intelligent, moving and compelling dramedy.
The set is ingeniously constructed of cardboard boxes stacked on top of each other with caricatures of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Boris Johnson. Multimedia images are cleverly projected onto the boxes throughout the play. Set, sound and multimedia are created by Dylan Howells who also plays a role onstage, keeping Sellman-Leava in line when he gets overzealous and cracking the odd joke to leaven the dryness of the material.
Sellman-Leava talks about his childhood in the 1980s, when his parents (who ran a greengrocery) lost their house and had to move into a council flat when their business went bust due to the popularity of supermarket chains (which have greater power to negotiate with vendors and keep their prices low).
In those days, some people were given the opportunity to buy their council flats from the government at a fraction of the market price, but he explains the government weren’t using the money to build more houses for the poor; they used it to lower taxes for the wealthy instead, leading to the housing and rental affordability crisis we see today. (There is the same issue in Australia and for the same reasons.)
He pulls out a Monopoly board and goes on to explain that the original rule created by the woman who invented this board game was that everyone wins when they buy a house, but that rule was scuppered by some greedy capitalist who decided the winner was the one who takes it all. Gee, that sounds remarkably familiar.
As the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, the divide between the two becomes ever wider and those of us with jobs and mortgages can barely afford to cover our food and bills due to the cost of living crisis – we’re all starting to see that our capitalist system is broken.
Sellman-Leava illustrates this in myriad ways – he talks about the mouldy, rat-infested flat he’s ‘lucky enough to own 3% of’ (creepy multimedia mould grows over the boxes as he speaks) and the fact that he and his generation are made to feel that they’re just unlucky with money or doing something wrong when in fact the system and the odds are stacked against them.
The show builds momentum as he becomes increasingly angry about the dreadful state of affairs in the UK economy and the mess with which his generation have been left to deal. His closing statements are an impassioned call to action.
Directed by Katharina Reinthaller, It’s the Economy, Stupid! is a desperate cry in the wilderness and a rousing call for reform. Props to Sellman-Leava and Howells for breaking down a complex subject in such a humorous and accessible way. This is an important play by one of Fringe’s rising stars and well worth a look.
It’s the Economy, Stupid! will be performed at Pleasance Dome, Jack Dome until 26 August 2024.
