Imogen Carter 

From comic cuts to bonkbusting bankers

How the arts are responding to the credit crunch
  
  


Screen

• He's tackled political corruption, the Iraq war and gun ownership. Now in his latest, as-yet-untitled documentary, Michael Moore takes on the recession.

• Australia director Baz Luhrmann (below)will film F Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece The Great Gatsby, set during America's booming 1920s, to offer "an explanation of where we are and where we've been".

• On the box, penny-pinching tips delivered by trusted experts are set to be the next trend. In Economy Gastronomy (BBC2) chef Allegra McEvedy will be advising the cash-strapped about cooking on a budget; Mary, Queen of Charity Shops (BBC2) finds retail expert Mary Portas tarting up second-hand stores; and in Channel 4's Kirstie's Homemade Home, Kirstie Allsopp is currently sharing craft tips.

Stage

• Birmingham Rep has revived Caryl Churchill's Serious Money, set in the City of London after the 1987 crash.

• Enron's role in the downfall of the US economy will be scrutinised this summer in Lucy Prebble's Enron (premieres July in Chichester, transfers to London's Royal Court in September).

• The Bush theatre, in west London, plans to stage future shows in abandoned shops at the West 12 centre.

• In London's square mile this June, as part of the 2 Degrees festival, C.R.A.S.H - A Postcapitalist A to Z promises radical performances probing the financial system.

• Comedians from Lucy Porter to Omid Djalili are fast penning credit-crunch gags. Brighton-based Smarty Pants Productions are on the road with Shop Till You Drop! A Credit Crunch Comedy and Frank Skinner's Credit Crunch Cabaret, originally staged at London's Lyric Theatre, returns this autumn.

Books

• Former banker Tetsuya Ishikawa's steamy fictional memoir How I Caused the Credit Crunch, features brothels, office sex, lap dance clubs and escorts.

• Millionaire businesswoman Pauline Hyde - who founded Britain's first outplacement agency in 1978 - has written a banking bonkbuster, Midas Man, in which a recently unemployed ad exec tries to bed himself back to the top.

Music

• There's been nothing yet to match "Ghost Town", the Specials' 1981 hit for hard times, but pop in 2009 is starting to address the economy. Neil Young sings: "There's a bailout coming, but it's not for you/It's for all those creeps hiding what they do," on his latest album Fork In The Road

• Rapper Young Jeezy's The Recession, released last September, proved • Country star John Rich decries the American government's response to the crisis in his song "Shuttin' Detroit Down".

• In the UK, Gallows' new album, Grey Britain, though recorded before the crunch, has been hailed as a tough indictment of a broken society.

 

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