Unique Exeter 'showgame' destined for Sydney Opera House

CRITICALLY-acclaimed showgame The Money, which puts a group of strangers in charge of spending a pot of money in front of an audience of ‘Silent Witnesses’, is to be staged in one of the world’s most iconic buildings.

Created by Seth Honnor of Exeter-based Kaleider, The Money is a unique immersive experience – described as part game-part show - where a group of participants buy their way into the game and have one hour to jointly decide how to spend a sum of real cash.

Next month it will be played out at the Sydney Opera House as part of the Antidote Festival, a major Australian festival of ‘ideas, art and action’.

Forsaking the traditional theatre setting, The Money is designed for civic decision-making spaces, to reflect its subject matter. To date it has travelled the world and been staged in Exeter’s Guildhall, the City Chambers in Edinburgh and the Houses of Parliament, as well as venues in China, Italy, USA, Nigeria, Paris, Portugal, Switzerland and Melbourne.

Seth Honnor, Artistic Director of Kaleider, said they were delighted to be part of the Antidote festival.

He added: ‘We’ve played The Money in some truly extraordinary venues. To play it in Sydney Opera House as part of such an exciting programme is very cool indeed. At Kaleider we aim to produce interesting, diverse and sometimes challenging work. To do this we try to hold our gaze on some of the world’s biggest challenges, like the challenges of climate change, social justice, migration, or power, such as The Money is concerned with.’

The Money involves a group of strangers making a decision about how to spend a sum of money. Members of the public buy into the show and choose to become either a Player or a Silent Witness. The Players are given a set amount of time to come to a unanimous decision about how to spend the money that’s on the table. If they decide in time, they get to take it away and spend it. They can be as creative as they like, with the only rules that the decision must be unanimous, and it must be within the law.

If they can’t make a unanimous decision the money rolls over to the next show. The Silent Witnesses can buy their way in at any point and become a Player with the others. So they can change the action right up until the last seconds on the clock.

Seth says it is fascinating to watch the action pan out. ‘It can be hilarious. It can be really fun. It can be beautifully poetic. It can be excruciating. Someone once told me that, for them, it was like watching Shakespeare. There aren’t any plants or performers in there – it’s all real people playing a game. And yet characters rise and fall, leaders come and go, and suddenly someone who’s been very quiet for a long time becomes very central to the action. It can be very exciting, and it can be quite quiet. Whatever happens it tends to be a memorable experience!’

The Money has already received a great deal of critical acclaim since it was first revealed in 2013 and has been the subject of two TV pilot shows (not yet broadcast) by Channel 4 and ITV.

It will be live-streamed from Sydney via www.facebook.com/TheKaleider/ at the following UK times
Saturday, September 2 - 6am, 9am and noon;
Sunday, September 3 - 3am, 6am and 9.30am

Kaleider is a studio based in Exeter, UK. They bring people together to make extraordinary live experiences, products and services. They play with live performance, installation, and digital, often in spaces that aren’t designated arts spaces. They make their own work, produce work, commission new work and provide support for artists to develop, push boundaries and take risks with their ideas.

For more information about Kaleider or The Money visit www.kaleider.com