ABOUT MONEY
Theatre503, 2021; Summerhall, 2022
Best Scottish Production At The Fringe: Runner-Up (The Scottish Arts Club Theatre Awards, 2022)
Shortlisted for the Saint Andrews Playwriting Award (2022)
Director - Alex Kampfner
Design Consultant - Tara Usher
Lighting - Cara Hood
Sound - Duncan Gallagher
Movement - Sean Hollands & Steve Kirkham
Cast - Emma Tracey (2021), Lois Hagerty (2022), Michael Mccardie, Matthew Boyle, Rohit Kumar and Isabele Derosa
“Weans. They’re expensive, you know?”
Fast Food worker Shaun is your average eighteen year old boy. He likes music, video games and getting stoned.
He’s also the sole carer to his eight year old sister, Sophie. Without enough money for child-care, and under pressure from an unsympathetic boss, he’s forced to make decisions that could have devastating consequences.
Drawn from interviews with young kinship carers, and inspired by the McDonald’s Strikes of 2018, this Glasgow drama is about family, love and friendship in a world where instability and the lack of money threatens all three.
PRAISE FOR ABOUT MONEY:
★★★★★ ‘Evidence that bleak circumstances do not necessarily result in an exhausting and depressing theatrical experience. There is plenty of humour… this is very much a play for our troubled times, fearlessly highlighting some pertinent issues in a fiercely engaging and entertaining way’ LondonTheatre1
★★★★★ ‘a visceral and vitally important piece… an exquisite little nugget of social political theatre: sublime in delivery and haunting in subject material’ Broadway Baby
★★★★: ‘A cleverly structured, powerfully performed play which offers a slice of hope through the dark’ The Scotsman
★★★★ ‘This heartbreaking story is beautifully told’ The Wee Review
★★★★ ‘About Money shines a light on the harsh realities for young kinship carers… completely gripping’ Broadway World
★★★★ ‘This script could have been a political rant with sharp edges and shouty. Instead its beautifully written … Throughout there is an extremely skilfully thread sewn in: is the sibling love between Shaun and Sophie enough to escape their current hell?… It really is great stuff’ Scottish Field
★★★★ ‘Similar in theme to Katherine Soper’s Wish List, Eliza Gearty’s play highlights how unfit for purpose the gig economy really is’ Bouquets and Brickbats