3/5

What does it mean to be broke in “broken Britain”? is the question posed in this play by Leeds-based company the Paper Birds.

Derived from verbatim interviews nationally with people in foodbanks and betting shops as well as single parents, it’s the first in a trilogy of plays about class. Yet while it is an investigation into debt and poverty, it never seeks to offer any solutions to such problems.

Its non-analytical, non-judgemental approach is framed by the perspective of children. The one-act show opens with a child drawing a house and the action is based within a bedroom, with the three actors dressed in pyjamas throughout.

The childlike quality extends to their explanations of the financial crisis — a speech on economics by Margaret Thatcher is illustrated with sock puppets and the mechanics of bank lending is accompanied by gold sweet wrappers being thrown from the top of a bunk bed — and the language of politics and economics is couched in that of bed-time stories.

This could come across as patronising but the tightly choreographed physical theatre techniques, toy props and minimalistic graphics lend Broke an earnestness of intent that makes it difficult not to get emotionally involved in stories that have different beginnings yet similar endings in their sleepless nights and spiralling debts.

With no solution offered to the financial crisis — debts will continue to build for as long as the country’s economy needs individuals to keep borrowing — it’s a somewhat bleak piece.

Yet perhaps it derives hope in that the children in thrall to this twisted fairy tale can enact future change.

Tours until March 12, details: thepaperbirds.com

Susan Darlington