Spent, a comical play about the 2008 financial crisis, made its debut two years ago to a fair bit of critical acclaim (it won a Dora award). It’ll be appearing at the Edinburg Fringe Festival next month, but a "final" series of fundraiser shows are taking place in Toronto over the next few days to raise money for festival costs. We caught up with writer and actor Ravi Jain to talk about the play.
Why a play about the 2008 financial crisis?
Well, me and my collaborator Adam had done a clown show [Tools] in 2008. It was about clowns building Ikea furniture. We wanted to find a different style that was comedic but more in depth. The crisis hit in 2008 and we said, that’s our show. It shows an international impact through a Toronto lens. It focuses on two Bay Street bankers who lose all their money and jump off a building. They dream of heaven with lots of food and money, and they get greedy. They are sent to hell because of their greed, then wake up and realize they are falling. It spoofs the media; BBC world news is a big part of it.
How does Spent show the financial crisis and its aftermath?
Through a BBC lens we show different reactions. We go to Afghanistan, for example, and show people laughing at America and their demise. We show real people who have to change everything while people like Richard Fuld keep everything. One part shows an average Joe who lost everything and there’s no one helping him. You hear the numbers of money that this guy (Richard Fuld) made and it’s absurd. American people had to bail him out.
Why use humour?
Comedy provokes us to think in a different way, uses a different part of the brain. Movies like Inside Job, which was a great documentary, have the ability to capture an audience’s attention. Theatre allows people to experience it in a different way. In 2010 there was a school trip of Detroit students who were laughing so hard. We asked them after the show and turns out they were all hit so hard by the crisis, people they know lost everything. They said it was the first time they could laugh at it. It pokes fun at the bastards who got away with murder.
What were people’s initial responses?
People were excited. It was the only show that directly talked about it. In 2009 there was an excitement for the way it was performed by two actors. We won the Dora award for best performance. We did a 2010 re-edit. Added that a year and a half after the crisis, when Wall Street made record profits. It felt like the crisis was over, but there was disparity between the rich and the poor. There was an idea of recovery, but we didn’t trust it.
How many characters do you and Adam Paolozza play?
There’s a total of about 34 characters. So about 16 or 17 each. At one part there’s a panel and we play about six characters at once. We use accents to differentiate. The two Bay Street characters are completely silent, they never actually speak. BBC world news explains what is happening.
How did you get involved with the Edinburg Fringe Festival?
Friends have performed there in the past. They said it would be a good fit for the Pleasance Theatre. We sent them a package and they took us.
Spent, Tank House Theatre July 27-29.
