We’ve all imagined winning the lottery. Our lives changed in a blink to a world of expensive tastes and a worry-free existence. But money changes people, and some in ways we couldn’t possibly imagine.
The Syndicate takes us to a small local shop where all the staff there have formed this 5-person lottery syndicate, in hopes of winning the weekend’s £24 million jackpot. But for two of them, money is needed immediately, so resort to robbing their own shop, which goes awry and leaves their manager fighting for his life in hospital. This has to be put to the back of their minds when their syndicate wins the jackpot, and the prize money threatens their relationships with the world, and each other.
Even Dr Frankenstein couldn’t assemble a story which feels so disjointed. There’s so many different plot points and themes that this show wanted to include that the production feels like multiple stories mashed into one and thrown onto a stage. We start with the robbery storyline, which could be its own story, that bizarrely feels interrupted by the group winning the lottery, that throws the robbery onto the backburners for a bit until the creatives felt like they should probably mention it again.
You’ve also got other thrown in stories, including a will they, won’t they dynamic between two of the store workers, an over-emphasis on the promotion of their win (which I understand because of other plot points but also, we don’t need that much social media content!), how another syndicate member’s partner has left them and even one person already on the run from the police because they’ve ‘abducted’ their adopted child! I know they were trying to differentiate all of the syndicate members and highlight some of the hardships in their lives but you found things mentioned one or twice in the production suddenly being a key plot development!
I did enjoy their use of set, especially the shop setting in act 1, where different lighting states were used to demonstrate different locations. I would have liked to see a little more diversity in these locations though, as almost an entire act in each of the shop and this luxurious house felt a bit same-y after a while. Apart from this, the technical direction of the play was largely unremarkable. All elements were executed well but with little outstanding creativity being used to make this memorable. The technical departments did a good job with what they had to work with, but there’s sadly nothing groundbreaking to be found here.
Samantha Giles played shop worker Denise, who is also the member of the syndicate gifted with the winning lottery ticket. Her performance in this show was great, particularly her comedic timing. She got a huge number of laughs throughout the run and her delivery of lines was exceptional. By waiting a second or two here and there, she turned a comedic moment into a laugh-out-loud crowd-pleaser with unrivalled skill. I often found myself watching her in every scene, in anticipation of the next killer comment. A great performance was also given by Jerome Ngonadi as the Detective Chief Inspector. A Sherlock Holmes in training, Ngonadi gave such an ominous feeling to his scenes, especially when paired with his huge smile as he laid out the facts of the case. There were times you found yourself against him, even though he’s working to find those who carried out the assault, and to be able to have that effect so quickly and so thoroughly was a joy to behold.
There were elements of this show I really enjoyed. But the plot linking them together, the creative decisions made and other factors left this show, in my opinion, without a determined direction, aim or main plotline to focus on. It is a good concept for a show that mirrors many of the dynamics real-life lottery winners must face, but sadly the execution just didn’t land for me
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
The Syndicate is playing at the Lyceum Theatre until June 15th, & touring the U.K. until July 27th
