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The Money Conversation - Still Lurking A Week On
The Money Conversation - Still Lurking A Week On...
By Selwyn Manning – Scoop Media co-editor
This writer is not one to normally obsess about money, but it's been a week since observing The Money Conversation at The Edge's Herald Theatre and there are a few things that need further pondering.
The lure:
The message from actress, creator, and New York based playwright Sara Juli was that she had cashed in her entire savings and was going to give it all away to the audience. What, is this true? Is she crazy? Is it real money? Is it really her own money? Does the audience have to give it back?
The answers clearly were: Yes. No. Yes. Yes. No.
Prior to the show, The Edge's wily promotional team kicked into gear, convincing reviewers and many of Auckland's theatre-goers that this was a show that would get them thinking about money and what money is to them… quite a taboo subject in many cultures, especially for the reserved and private Kiwi.
But the lure was effective. Opening night at the Herald Theatre was abuzz with people. Before the show the atmosphere was alive with little groups forming, engaged in whispers, a sip of bubbly here, an "Oh is it really real money?" there… Sara Juli's spell was beginning to take affect.
The hook:
The audience gathered and positioned to receive its bounty. The stage was set with several rows of seats to stage-left, and several rows of seats stage-right. In the middle… Sara Juli appeared: "Yes, you've heard it right. I have cashed out my entire savings account and have brought it here tonight. The money not only represents but literally IS all the money I have saved over the seven years I have lived in New York City. This money is my safety net. As you can imagine, it is very important to me. However, tonight, we'll find out how important my money is to you…"
The line:
So the audience was entertained with Sara Juli's dance and embrace, a love affair with what money can be to some. She wavered within a romance that enlivened what can be a life-long love of wonderment, allurement, a gift of freedom that money, in its abundance, can unlock.
There were unintelligible moments where Sara Juli retreated into that inner world where we allow situation and circumstance to take shape, where we allow words and thoughts to play out 'what ifs' and 'when', of 'how and what will it mean's'…
From within the melancholy, Sara Juli emerged to confront her audience: Lucidly, she asked: "What does $20 mean to you?" $50? $100… the Q&A session laid bare a materialism that has woven within each of us. A glimpse of how money in its most raw form contains us, captures our intrigue, cages us from all sides. The answers followed: "A new pair of shoes." "A good night out." "A night out drinking." "A new shirt." "A haircut for the pet dog!" There were expressions of share want of betterment as opposed to survival.
The sinker:
And then it was dished out… $20 here, $100 there… until one lucky man received several thousand dollars. Lucky, hmmm well perhaps not, as each recipient had to endure cringe moments of Sara Juli's bizarre melancholy that seemed to intensify by degrees equal to the increasing value of her generosity.
A situation was forming: on one hand there were short term rewards, moments of 'oh wouldn't it be great to buy that!' dreams. On the other hand, was a playwright from New York City with nothing left to her name. Broke and thousands of miles from home.
In the end Sara Juli was left standing there broke, pockets empty, poor as a stage mouse… finally and financially she was at the mercy of her beneficiaries. Her audience was no longer her captive. That role had reversed. This was the flip-side – a clever twist to her solo-character play.
Sara Juli's gamble was to place heart and soul in the goodness of our human values. And as is the way with gambling there are winners and losers. Each member of the audience had a choice: to keep her money? Or give it back? But each person could see that to keep the loot was to lose something of themselves…
One guy sitting next to me was given $300. He had said earlier that if he was given any money he would keep it. He was absolute in his resolve. But on exiting The Edge's Herald Theatre, he popped the $300 into Sara Juli's deposit box – and walked out the richer for it.
Several shows followed, and Sara Juli continued her play… The Money Conversation - a play on generosity, on what money really means, on materialism, and on self-sacrifice and trust.
By Monday, Sara Juli was ready to leave town and return to her home in the United States. She was several hundred dollars down on what she arrived with. "Not bad" some would say… Others would say she would have been paid a proportion of the play's takings… yes? But then… in the end, the show was not about what Sara Juli gained or lost. It was about us.
Scoop
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