Daniel Bye starts by warning the audience that what they’re going to see is not a “proper play” but rather a lecture about value. While the first half of the show is concerned with actual economic value, the second half deals with the symbolic value of things, acts, and kindness. Through a whirlwind of compelling anecdotes, slides and glasses of milk, Bye leads the audience on a journey from the present obsession with pricing everything to a utopian gift-economy society. Far from being a lecture, The Price of Everything is an optimistic and melancholic elegy of altruism and anti-capitalism that leaves the audience with a smile on their faces and the hope that someday, somehow, we might get there.

Hill Street Theatre, until 25 Aug, 10.30 am
tw rating 4/5 | [Claudia Marinaro]