Review: THE MONEY, Kaleider - London County Hall

Photo credit: Prudence Upton

Initially we were sceptical about this show, if you can call it a "show"; it was more of an experience. The premise of Kaleider’s The Money is that there is a pot of money (for our show this amounted to £520.20, but this can vary) and the "players" are given the opportunity to debate on where that money should go, with four conditions in place:

It must be a unanimous decision,

It must but go to charity,

It must not be split between the players,

It must be within the law.

Immediately, 90% of the ideas you may have had going into this experience are now not able to happen. You have 1 hour and if a decision is not made, the money will roll over for the next group to debate over. "Silent Witnesses" may choose to join the debate by ringing a bell on the stage and paying in an extra £20. Luckily, our group managed to come to a decision, but more on that later...

We are sure that you, reading this review, are currently thinking about what you would do and that is precisely what you are confronted with in this experience. It truly sucks you in and confronts you with your own values. All sorts of questions are thrown into the debate... "What can we really achieve with £500?" "How do we decide who is more worthy of the money over another?" "Where do we even begin to start narrowing our options down?" These would be discussed and debated.

As Silent Witnesses, we must be exactly that; and not influence the decision making process.

This simple opportunity granted through The Money allows us to view a microcosm of society and the decision making process we all go through. Individual personalities are bought out in ways that they perhaps never would be day to day. This is in fact the creator, Seth Honour's, intention; to deconstruct our ideas and the concept of money....

"I think of money and ownership as a slightly bizarre human construct. Like the fact that you own the shirt that you're wearing and I own the jumper... but the sheep that made the wool and who owned the water and the ground that it was on... The sunlight that keeps it alive... You know..?

"And then money as the accounting system... We're all totally enthralled to it. So I put the money in the middle of the table and call the show “The Money" and then invite people to kind of go "How do we behave with money and what do we then it kind of brings out our values system." ~ Seth Honour

Through a series of well debated points, our group of players landed on helping children, the reason being that after the year we have had and schools being disrupted, children are well deserving of a break, a day of "hedonistic joy". But they couldn't narrow down specifically what. That is until a silent witness - who's name isn't Emma, but I'll refer to her as such - paid in £20 to join the discussion and suggest a "Forest School" be given the money for new equipment. Emma went on to be trusted with the money and it will eventually go towards that cause.

However this is just one episode of The Money, and having spoken to the creator, it is evident that decisions are only made 50% of the time. With people in the past having decided at the last minute to ring the bell and pay £20 to say "No" and that be the end of it. How frustrating must that be?

And it is for that reason, we believe this experience is beyond a star rating, purely because of how much the experience and the content of it depends on the people in the debate. Of course, we believe this mirrors the world in which we live. If we were to give the world a star rating, we would perhaps give a -1/5. But if it were filled with the kind hearted people we met today, then of course I would give it a 5/5 rating.

That being said, the experience of being confronted with this moral dilemma is incredibly worth it, and we definitely recommend that you book tickets to experience it.

Reviewed by: Callum Wallace

The Money plays at London County Hall until 6 June. For more information and to book tickets, please click here.