Serious Money

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Serious Money is a satirical play written by Caryl Churchill first staged in 1987. Its subject is the British stock market, specifically the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE). The plot deals mainly with two themes. The first is the Todd family, comprising Greville Todd and his two children, Scilla and Jake; the three of them are traders in LIFFE, and the play deals mainly with their deal-making. The other theme is Billy Corman's attempt to take over the Albion company from Duckett, with the assistance of his banker, Zac Zackerman, a Peruvian businesswoman, Jacinta Condor, her acquaintance, Nigel Ajibala, and their intermediary, the aforementioned Jake Todd.

The language of the play relies mainly on rhyming couplets and scatological humour. But the foul language was very true to the atmosphere of trading floors at the time. The objects of Ms Churchill's merciless caricature loved the show, and flocked in their red-braced droves to see it -- making Ms Churchill some serious money of her own.

[edit] Plot summary

After the viewers are introduced to the characters, it is revealed that Jake has been found dead under mysterious circumstances. Apparently he was under investigation by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) for insider trading. Scilla resolves to ferret out the truth behind her brother's murder, but gets sidetracked by her greed and instead decides to obtain the substantial sums of money her brother was dealing in.

At the same time, Corman attempts to persuade Jacinta and Nigel, who were introduced to him by Jake, to buy shares in Albion and support his bid for the company. Although they agree, and Corman lends Nigel some money to buy the shares, in reality, they end up giving their support to Duckett. Corman's bid appears to be failing, but he resolves to end up in jail for insider dealing rather than back down. Scilla eventually tracks down the money Jake was handling to a Marylou Baines, another associate of his. Marylou, who was also involved in supporting Jacinta's doublecross of Corman, agrees to hire Scilla.

At the play's closing, Corman gives up the deal in return for a Lordship from the Conservative government, who were concerned that the appearance of not being tough on white-collar crime would hurt their election chances. Zac marries Jacinta, who was apparently his lover.

[edit] Staging

After opening in London in 1987, Serious Money was produced on Broadway. It opened on February 9, 1988 at the Royale Theatre and ran for 15 performances and 21 previews. Some changes were made for the Broadway run, such as a reference to the American stock market crash of 1987.