Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘The Syndicate’, which is at Shrewsbury’s Theatre Severn until Saturday 22nd June and touring.
It’s just not fair when The Lottery is won by criminals! And that’s not a spoiler…because it’s evident very early on in Kay Mellor’s gritty comedy that the bad guys are going to win the loot. But in her excellent multi-layed plot, it’s what happens next that grips the audience.
I thought I’d be at a disadvantage because ‘The Syndicate’ is not the kind of TV I tend to watch… but it mattered not a jot, as this new stage adaptation is designed as much for newcomers as existing fans. So let me also assume you are unfamiliar with the storyline.
We are in a typical small scale convenience store somewhere in Yorkshire … run by a small dedicated staff including a Sue Pollard look-a-like and two brothers; the diligent but pressurised Stuart – who is just starting a family – and the wayward Jamie, who sports the scars of a drugs deal bust up.
The store, however, is doomed (and their jobs under threat) so the brothers are in need of cash. The shop’s main income is from selling lottery tickets for ‘Mercury Millions’. The staff have a syndicate and this week its a ‘roll over’. But, Jamie schemes, the best way to get their hands on the money is to steal it. Needless to say the ham-fisted robbery goes wrong (nobody seems to notice the security cameras) though they do get away with £7K. Then, irony of ironies, next day they win £24 Million.
It’s what Mellor does with the plot from here that is surprisingly gripping. She gives everybody a well-conceived fully-fledged back story that engages in a particularly caring way; the shop assistant who’s ignorant of her partner’s cheating ways (though he comes back to her when she’s a millionaire), the cuddly retirement-age manager with a beautiful young wife, and the single mum with a dark personal secret.
She constructs a clever first half cliff hanger and then dramatically moves the play from a dowdy suburban shop to a glitz and bling mansion … and explores how her characters adjust to sudden wealth in an enthralling way. All of which makes ‘The Syndicate’ rather more than a long-form soap opera episode.
If you’ve ever considered what you would do with a lottery win, it’s gripping stuff … from the impossibility of the instruction not to tell anyone, to the dilemma of how many fast cars you need.
As you would expect with a high-calibre cast, the acting is pretty near perfect; capped by an excellently wild performance by Oliver Anthony as the Millennial, entitled, utterly selfish Jamie who he plays with charming nastiness.
Is it a comedy? The jokes are few, far between and often familiar. For example, “He’s got a face like a Scarborough donkey on a wet weekend”. But I loved Samantha Giles’ pathetic innocence as the cuckolded cashier and Kay Mellor’s witty dig at modern technology when their new-fangled Alexa machine can’t understand Brook Vincent’s Yorkshire accent. The situation humour stops short of Black Comedy … but is often dark grey. For not all in ‘The Syndicate’ is happiness and light. There are so many truths here … many of which are uncomfortable. I squirmed rather more than I belly-laughed … but enjoyed it enormously.
‘The Syndicate’ on stage is a slick, well-crafted and convincingly performed piece of proper theatre. It’s two-thirds of its way through a successful national tour. Catch it in Shrewsbury while you can.