£10,000 on stage tests audience’s honesty

A new play is to tempt audiences by putting £10,000 in pound coins on the stage before them.

Money The Game Show, which opens tonight at the Bush theatre, is using the coins after the production team found it could be more expensive to create realistic props.

Actors play ex-hedge fund managers who challenge the audience to high-stake games that show how the world’s economy came to the brink of collapse.

Creative director Jon Spooner said: “You get a sense of the rush of what it’s like to work in that environment.” Insurers have insisted on security and CCTV. But Mr Spooner believes there is little risk of losses: “If you’re going to nick it, you’re going to have to be quite strong.”