2011 Edinburgh Fringe

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On September 15, 2008, two high-powered executives went to sleep with their hopes and dreams tucked safely in the bank. The next morning they woke to find everything gone. Was it a dream or a nightmare? It was most certainly a crisis.

Spent is an exceptional piece of physical theatre first produced for the Toronto Clown Festival. It became the best-selling show at the festival and was nominated for several Dora Awards (celebrating extraordinary Toronto talent in the performing arts), including Outstanding Production and Outstanding New Play, Best Performance by an Ensemble in a Featured Role, which it went on to win.

Written by Michele Smith, Dean Gilmour, Ravi Jain and Adam Paolozza, Spent is a fast paced, intelligent and poetic commentary on the greed that caused the financial crisis, and the media that sensationalized it. Two actors play over thirty characters from the world of the financial crisis, including CEOs, down-and-out bankers, journalists, media pundits and regular people who lost their money and homes.

Spent is a co-production between two generations of Toronto's finest independent theatre companies; regarded as "masters of original creation theatre" Dean Gilmour and Michele Smith (Theatre Smith-Gilmour) have occupied an essential place in the landscape of Canadian theatre since 1980. Ravi Jain (Why Not Theatre) and Adam Paolozza (TheatreRUN) have been recognized as the next generation of exciting and physically innovative theatre creators. Coming to the UK for the first time at this year's Edinburgh Fringe, Spent is relevant, topical theatre and speaks in an immediate way to a piece of history that is still unfolding and affecting people all over the world.