‘I wish everyone could see this bank, so that they could learn from it, like I have’ reads a little note inside an illuminated glass jar – part of an installation of wishes that is the final image of Theatre-Rites’ Bank On It. As the young audience leaves I loiter, reading more and more of the messages that have been ‘banked’ for the future. There are hopes for a new baby brother, a sick mother, a Nan with cancer, and ‘for my family to be happy’. There are general wishes for the planet and the human race, the to-be-expected hopes for world peace and an end to hunger and violence, and there are some very personal ones, such as a desire to be ‘the best footballer in Arsenal’.
Bank On It starts out as a show about money and ends up being a show about economics, something different altogether! It starts as a jolly children’s theatre romp – albeit in typically clever and well-executed Theatre-Rites mode – and ends as a profoundly moving reflection on what it really means to ‘spend’ and to ‘save’.
At the appointed hour we gather in the foyer of the Rose Lipman Building in Haggerston, East London which boasts the sort of no-nonsense 1960s community centre architecture despised at the time, but now garnering listed-building status. A young man pushes through the crowd to reach the cashpoint machine ahead, but his card is rejected by the ATM (which makes some very silly noises). A woman makes her way through, tries the door of the bank – but it’s shut. She’s cross and asks the audience if they know what’s going on. A guy with a smartphone complains to anyone who’ll listen that the online banking service is down. Someone else tries the cashpoint without luck, more funny noises erupt, and through the screen we see the head of a bald man with glasses popping up and down. (The young audience are delighted, screaming wildly by now.) Eventually Mr Bank Manager (the perfectly cast Danny Schlesinger) escapes his ATM prison and runs away – cast and audience following excitedly.
We’re led into the offices of the ‘bank’ to witness the confrontation between our band of five angry customers and the manager. ‘What’s happened to our money?’ is the question everyone wants answered. The bank is the old-fashioned type, with shelves of brown cardboard storage boxes, and pinboards stuck with yellowing receipts and statements. The aesthetic is one familiar to fans of previous Theatre-Rites shows such as Shopworks. The story unfolds with the help of lots of lovely puppetry and object animation, including a clunky mechanical Mr Regulator (with puppeteer arms, courtesy of Mohsen Nouri) who struggles to get his sums right; a whole library of beautiful pop-up books showing us mortgaged paper houses and the illustrated outcomes of shopping sprees; and a surprising filing cabinet that comes to life and demands that the ‘customers’ fess up about their financial histories. This block of the show has a feisty, almost Pantomime feel – cries of ‘he’s over there!’ as the manager runs hither and thither, and raucous squeals of enjoyment as boxes and files seem to move by themselves.
Eventually, the bank manager is persuaded to open his vaults – and we are led in small groups into a low-lit wonderland in which taps drip into empty baths, plastic bags become sea creatures, and miniature houses are lit with switches that children are invited to turn off. The mood changes, and the atmosphere becomes almost reverent. It is here that we learn that when we talk of ‘saving’, there is a lot more to save than money – and if we don’t start to save our earth’s precious resources, the day will come when money will buy us nothing.
What is wonderful, though, is that despite its serious message about the depletion of our valuable resources, and the need to save something more vital than our pennies and pounds, Bank On It maintains a strong sense of positivity and empowerment. With both the final wishes-in-bottles scene, and a preceding beautiful and heart-warming ritualistic gathering to throw pennies into a well (as a copper-penny glitterball twirls above us and bubbles float all around), we are invited to take on the notion that we have the power to be the change we want to see in the world.
Combining forms gracefully – feisty physical comedy, cheery songs, witty puppetry, beautiful installation work, and gentle promenading – Bank On It is not just great children’s theatre, it is great theatre, full stop. And although I missed the press show and ended up seeing it late in the run, that turned out to be a bonus as I found myself mixed in with the most robust and enthusiastic young audience you could imagine (kids from a local Hackney primary school).
Directed by Sue Buckmaster and designed by Hannah Clark (with puppet design and making by Michael Fowkes and Billie Achilleos), Theatre-Rites’s Bank On It is another grand success from a company who have paved the way for innovative children’s theatre for almost two decades – funny, thought-provoking, and awe-inspiring all at once; a truly magical journey exploring the true meaning of economics. Oh and you get a lucky penny to keep – or even better, to pass on: ‘Find a penny pick it up, all day long you’ll have good luck. Give the penny to a friend, and your luck will never end.’ Let’s keep that money moving around – and let’s not forget that money can’t buy you love.
Bank On It was co-commissioned by Theatre-Rites, the Barbican and CREATE, in association with Warwick Arts Centre and the Economics Department of the University of Warwick. www.theatre-rites.co.uk