Spent
A
morality tale about the 2008 financial crisis, Spent
tells the story of a pair of Toronto bankers driven to desperate
measures by their sudden change of fortune. Using live
dramatisations of rolling news coverage as the framing device for the
action, the bankers’ story is presented through montages of largely
silent clowning.
Adam
Paolozza and Ravi Jain play the bankers in question, alongside
numerous other figures, from a Church of England vicar to Beelzebub
himself. The pair are able mimics and have created some amusing
characters, but scene after scene is let down by the fact that most
of these characters are based on just one gag, their scenarios drawn
out far longer than warranted. Even more frustrating is when these
characters are reprised later in the show without the humour being
taken any further than in their initial scenes.
There
are some nice moments of theatre here – the panel show, in which
Paolozza and Jain play six different figures in turn, is worth a
mention – but the show’s middle section reveals a crassness that is unpleasant to watch. A seriously questionable reference to the
recent Dominique Strauss-Kahn alleged sexual assault case was a low
point.
Paolozza
and Jain are skilled in physical clowning, but they are unfortunately
not funny or clever enough at what they do to carry us through a
piece with such serious pacing issues and such a paucity of ideas.
