Was a bit disappointed by the performance this time - the story's a bit forced, and the acting's also not the greatest I've seen even in a small theatre like the Old Red Lion. We've seen quite a number of performances here, including The Importance of Being Earnest, Happy New and Playing Pinter which I didn't write about coz I just didn't get it (and didn't like it) at all. To me, the Old Red Lion seems to be an experimental theatre that showcases really small productions, most of which cannot make it to a bigger theatre (The Importance of Being Earnest being an exception coz it's exceptionally good - I think it's now showing in the West End!).
Infinite Riches has a simply storyline - a guy named Phil is in serious financial trouble, and it doesn't help that his plant-crazy and possibly mentally ill wife is obsessed with buying rubbish from pound shops. For some weird reason he then takes up a loan from the nan of a girl he meets at the park, and of course that's where the trouble begins. Basically the whole play's full of sick people - Phil who doesn't seem to have a will of his own as he seems to succumb to other people's wishes every single time; his wife who's obsessed with personified plants and pound shopping; the 'nan' who's not really the girl's nan but a child kidnapper; and the girl who is a habitual shoplifter, who also helps her nan in various delinquent deeds... and what's the point of the whole play? I suppose it's about how many people are in debt these days, and how it's like a tunnel with no end to it. But such a simple message isn't even conveyed properly in the play, in my opinion. The characters are just sick, and there is no way to explain sick people's behaviour. They're also so unbelievable as characters that you don't really care what happens to them.
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