Economy of Thought @ Assembly George Square

While an anti-capitalist protest takes place on the ground around a high-rise bank, a group of bankers six floors up decide to bet on whether or not the crowd will wildly scramble for a £50 note dropped from above. The initially harmless prank turns serious when one of the protestors ends up on life-support, and the group try to deal with the aftermath.

Banker bashing has become a national pastime, and while Patrick McFadden’s solid play indulges in a little of the action, the overall stance is more nuanced, exploring the contrast between the shut-off ‘greed is good’ world of the financial sector and the real world outside. Economy of Thought poses questions that must be answered about the integrity of the bankers and the effect such a life has on them, particularly for the conflicted Amanda (Katharine Davenport), torn between vaulting ambition and her journalist sister Collette’s search for her big break.

Amanda is by far the most interesting character in the play, although her banker colleagues have their moments, but her internal conflict is hammered in a little too obviously with the addition of her sister, a character more infuriating than she should be. When the supposed voice-of-the-people in your story is the most annoying example of the moral high ground outside of the Guardian’s Comment is Free section, then there’s a problem.

Slickly directed (although weighed down by lengthy set changes), strongly performed and solidly entertaining, Economy of Thought won’t win any awards but it has some important points to make.