Show Me the Money is the latest show from performer, writer and video artist Paula Varjack. The event is being presented by Flint and Pitch who are bringing talented spoken word performers to Edinburgh outside of the festival season. The format of the evening is simple and effective. A main act performs an hour long show and two supporting acts present shorter works.
Support for tonight’s performance comes from Skye Loneragan who performs an extract of her show The Line We Draw. Loneragan plays with language and how storytelling can be presented to adults and children. She makes use of illustrations to embody her ideas and gives the audience a taster of what appears to be an interesting and thoughtful show.
Martin O’Connor is up next with an extract of his new one man performance Mark of the Beast. O’Connor takes an in-depth look at the people of Glasgow and their relationship to alcohol. Glasgow dialect plays a major part in the extract, which was funny, emotionally engaging and performed with honesty and power. O’Connor is a fine performer and Mark of The Beast shows great potential in being a careful, engaging and compelling piece of spoken word theatre.
Paula Varjack has a natural and personal stage presence. She does the unique thing of making a show in the 100 seated venue at the Scottish Storytelling Centre feel like an intimate one on one performance. The audience gets drawn in by her natural storytelling skills and can sit back, relax and enjoy her words and skills as a visual artist. This talent is obvious as soon as she takes the stage.
Show Me The Money is a creative and imaginative look at money and how an individual struggles to earn a living as an artist. Anyone who has attempted to make art their full time job will fully understand the struggles and frustrations presented on stage. If art isn’t your career, the topics on display still convey a universal truth about the hardships of working life in modern day Great Britain.
The performance is interspersed with video projections which show talking head interviews with a diverse array of artists. Video plays a major role in Show Me The Money. At times Paula uses video art as a means to present her frustrations. The abstract nature of the projections convey her complex emotions and the problematical relationship between money and art. The result is a funny, enjoyable and enlightening hour that communicates the difficulties of being artist through an original and striking performance.
Paula is returning to Edinburgh in August to present Show Me The Money during the Edinburgh Fringe at the Bedlam Theatre. Summer may seem far off, but festivals goers should definitely mark Show Me The Money as a show to see in the busy festival season.
Spoken Word events in Edinburgh from Flint and Pitch continue throughout the year with regular cabaret nights at the Bongo Club and the Lyceum and further spoken word theatre shows.