Making a Killing gets off to a good, lampooning start. Photo / Supplied
Making a Killing gets off to a good, lampooning start. Photo / Supplied
This farce in American Psycho territory has a great premise: a personalised Monopoly game between old friends - scoundrel merchant bankers who know where all the bodies are buried. The stakes are high - everyone has put $250,000 into the pot - but they're not going to let that getin the way of drinking, snorting and paying for sex.
However, the script needs more polish to sharpen the satire and tighten some flab, while the production could have incorporated more slapstick. For loud misogynists in a brothel, their body language was remarkably unsleazy.
Still, Making a Killing gets off to a good, lampooning start, with show-off Dave (Jonathan Hodge) telling his assistant Peter (Carl Dixon) that since his 90-day probation period is nearly up, he has to join the Monopoly game to prove he's worth keeping on. Playwright Ben Van Lier (who also plays hothead Justin) throws in several good quips.
"You can't give yourself a credit rating, you have to buy it like everybody else," says smug Gary - marvellously played by Andrew Ford.
Kate Burton's split-level set is great, full of overbearing, heavy opulence.
Admirably, Catalyst Theatre Company's members take it in turns to direct and write their plays, and they show a lot of potential. It would be great to see them get to the next level with mentoring. I didn't see their last play, Heroes, but I did watch their Flightless Birds in April. Like Making a Killing, it was about a bunch of male friends getting drunk. Some new tricks will take them far. Luckily, they're young dogs.
