By Kenneth Jones
31 Jul 2010

Steven Sutcliffe

Caryl Churchill's Serious Money, a satiric snapshot of London's stock market in the 1980s, gets a new production beginning July 31 at the Studio Theatre of The Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.

"The Studio Theatre is home for the second year to programming that takes us outside the [George Bernard Shaw period] mandate with writers who have continued, ŕ la Shaw, to provoke, challenge and question the establishments that run our lives," Shaw artistic director Jackie Maxwell said in a statement. "With her brilliant take-no-prisoners attitude, Caryl Churchill is undoubtedly one of our foremost 'contemporary Shavians.'"

"A satire about the financial wheeler-dealers created by a financial boom, "Serious Money is billed as "a wickedly funny and an unflinching look at corporate ruthlessness and greed."

The play was first staged at the Royal Court in 1987, directed by Max Stafford-Clark and starring Gary Oldman. Churchill wrote the play after visiting LIFFE, the London Stock Exchange and Metal Exchange and she spent weeks immersed in the Financial Times. It won both the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play and the Obie for Best New American play.

The Shaw staging (officially opening Aug. 14) is directed by Eda Holmes and features Marla McLean as Scilla, Ali Momen as Zackerman, Graeme Somerville as Corman and Ken James Stewart as Jake with Anthony Bekenn, Lisa Codrington, Nicolá Correia-Damude, Lorne Kennedy, David Schurmann and Steven Sutcliffe (of Broadway's Ragtime).

Performances continue to Sept. 12. Visit shawfest.com.