Roe Reviews Theatre

What happens when you mix financial trading with tulips and live music? The Lofts 4th production of 2025 ‘The Just Price of Flowers’ and their reopening of the studio space since the pandemic

As someone who knows nothing about finance or floristry I came in possibly as blind as you can get but with Mark Crossley’s amazing direction and James Yarker’s writing I was in for a treat! Could I understand all the terminology and the deep finance and business knowledge in the plays text? Not really but was it still enjoyable with belly laugh moments? Absolutely!

This cast of 7 have been pulled in from almost every recent Loft production with Lucinda Toomey and Craig Shelton leading the way as the Van Leasing couple (yes the names are financial puns themselves) with their journey of discovering the tulip market and falling into a rabbit hole of stocks and trades and pensions and credit swaps. However they are faced with Van Eek (Laura Smith), Van Hire (Leonie Fraser) and Van Tage (Dave Crossfield) in their money talks and gains watching all their assets and peacocks be swapped and shared to their dismay in fear of what they have gotten themselves in for…

The play despite it’s very business and corporate nature is driven well by Angie Collin’s narrator who by guiding us through what’s about to happen in very basic human moments can help us who aren’t in the know, understand a bit more. The songs also composed by the Stan’s Cafe company bring the show its more human nature and shows the ‘human needs’ of each character and what they are really fighting for.

Overall this show is very strong in it’s plot with a mix of humour and business with Shelton’s guitar and audience interaction being more human nature to these otherwise corporate beings

The show (I’m happy to say) has completely sold out its 4 performance run but their next production ‘Things I Know to be True’ is running from the 7th-17th May