Theatre writer and performer Clare Duffy's new show about money

Platform 18: Money - The Game Show

What drew you to the subject of money for your new show?
I was amazed by the enormity of the financial crisis in 2008. I hadn’t really realised before that money might actually stop working on a global scale. Of course I was glad that it didn’t! But it made me start thinking about money in a completely different way. At first I found the subject of money really quite intimidating. It seems so complicated; bonds, shares and incomprehensible things like ‘credit default swaps’ … which are the ‘financial weapons of mass destruction’ blamed for the financial crisis. But money is such a vital part of my everyday life. I can’t eat without it. So it’s really important and it’s actually really interesting.

The piece is subtitled ‘The Game Show’. How did you arrive at that as a structure for your show?
I wanted to find a theatrical way to think about money that was really fun and accessible. Also, the show is structured as a game, because on the international stage, money is a game of risk and chance.

You recently won the Arches Platform 18 award. What does that mean for your career?
It’s a fantastic opportunity to work with two great theatres and try to make a really exciting new show.

You’re performing Money at both the Arches and Traverse in April. Do you have to tweak the piece for the different spaces?
Yes. The show is a game for two teams. So we’re going to perform it with the audience facing each other in their two teams in the Arches. But in the Traverse the audience are all facing the stage together. I’m excited to see how the two different spaces will work.

Do you think the financial crisis makes it harder for theatre artists to make work? Or is it just a question of making more with less resources?
Yes, money is definitely getting tighter. I don’t think we’ve begun to feel the full effects of the financial crisis in the arts yet. But there is always opportunity when things change and artists have always had to make something out of nothing, (or very little).

Platform 18: Money … The Game Show, Arches, Glasgow, Tue 5–Sat 9 Apr; Traverse Theatre, Glasgow, Thu 14–Sun 17 Apr (with Gareth Nicholls’ Pause with a Smile).

More: Theatre, Previews (Theatre), Clare Duffy, Money ... The Game Show, Platform 18

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