Windfall at the Southwark Playhouse. Photo by Pamela RaithJudith Amsenga, Audrey Anderson, Jack Bennett, Joanne Clifton, Wesley Griffith and Gabriel Paul provide the onstage antics as greed and desperation conspire to upend the group's initial optimism and generous-spirited plans in response to a vision sent by god to the most irritatingly evangelical of their number!
It's a play of two halves in which the first sets up the relatively simplistic situation and introduces us the clichéd stereotypes, whilst the second turns each of them into monsters as they readily accept the accusations of deviancy, treachery, villainy and greed levelled at one another. Of course the grubby little office of 5 desks (and the boss's inner-sanctum-behind-the- blinds) descends into chaos and shouting, but as with any farce, timing is everything and the well-honed group deliver the ridiculous spectacle with verve and (given the limited space) commendable self-control and spatial awareness.
It's a well-tried formula and may lack sophistication, but all-in-all it's a manic load of fun and nonsense to lift theatregoers' spirits on even the greyest of London evenings at the tail-end of winter.
The stakes are high when a fragile ceasefire causes two countries to enter into peace talks. The strip of land they have been fighting over, could be any of a number of world conflict zones, but right now with Ukraine never far from anyone's mind, the scenario seems particularly prescient.