Review: For Love or Money at Kingston's Rose Theatre

3 STARS, October 31 – November 4. A fast-paced 1920s satire that entertains but leaves you yearning for more, says Jonathan Lewis

For Love or Money, adapted for the stage by Blake Morrison for Northern Broadsides, is a fast paced, energetic romp set in 1920s Yorkshire. Based upon Alain-René Lesage’s play Turcaret, first performed by the Comedie-Francaise in 1709, it shines a light on love, greed and ultimately misfortune.

Barry Rutter leads a finely tuned cast in a merry dance around the Rose’s capacious stage. A stage with minimum furniture and paintings missing from the walls, sets a scene of hard times and scarcity, putting in motion a series of events and characters that connive, swindle and back stab their way into putting ‘brass’ in their pockets.

The action centres around Sarah Jane Potts’ youthful widow, Rose, entertaining courtship from Barrie Rutter’s Algy and Joss Vantyler’s Arthur. The former, old, ugly and rich, the latter young, handsome and poor. Who would you choose? A triangle of love ensues in which Rose’s loyalties are divided. Initially oblivious to the scheming antics of Arthur and his reluctant manservant Jack (Jordan Metcalfe), her faithful housekeeper Marlene, (Jacqueline Naylor) attempts in vain to open her eyes to the deceit and corruption that will ensue. Leaving Rose to her own devices allows the suitors to come and go as they please, each trying to undo the other in the pursuit of ‘love or money’.

Characters come and go in a whirl, often expressing themselves in florid dialogue and rhyming couplets. At times we feel we’re straying between Shakespearean comedy (Arthur and Jack are not that far removed from Midsummer Night’s Oberon and Puck) and traditional Whitehall farce… in fact many of the witty one-liners and wordplay, although beautifully delivered by the whole cast in strong Yorkshire dialect, are perhaps better suited to a modern day panto than a period comedy.

As the action unfolds, especially in the first half of the play I found it difficult to engage with the characters on an emotional level. However deceitful, conniving or capricious they may be there has to be redeeming qualities that draw us in and make us want to root for them. Without this we are left disengaged. It’s only in the second half of the play, when Jim English’s Martin and Sarah Park’s (beautifully delivered) Teresa lay bare their feelings, not only for one another but for those around them, that we are truly drawn into the action.

That said the show is well directed by the company’s founder Barrie Rutter. Not only does he deliver an excellent performance himself, he also draws strong performances from his whole cast. A real ensemble piece that finished with a company Charleston. A merry dance that left the audience on a high.

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