It’s often stated but no less pertinent for that: theatre can respond to contemporary events far more quickly than most art forms.

We all know that, currently, it’s the economy, stupid, which means in the autumn the National will have David Hare tackling the collapse of global capitalism.

Nifty Soho has got there first, though, with an appealingly low-budget evening of 10 short pieces, written late and rehearsed in just two weeks by a team of five actors.

It’s a night of quiet, and not so quiet, desperation, as the little people are crushed by the wheels coming off big business.

Lisa Goldman and Esther Richardson’s production starts earnestly but slowly, and only hits its stride with the last work in the first half, Anaphylactic by Megan Barker. Intense and surreal, and with a marvellously sensual performance from Lara Pulver, it sees a contestant on Deal or No Deal win a box of honeybees, the very bees that are about to become the world’s most precious commodity.

There’s gritty realism American-style from Ron McCants in The Farmer and the Shepherd, as a blue-collar father and son struggle to understand why Mexicans are allowed to take all the low-paid mining jobs that previously were theirs. Kay Adshead’s powerful and bleak Possessed sees bankrupt young couples with babies sleeping rough. Delightful light relief comes courtesy of Marisa Carnesky and her mortgage-themed magic tricks.

Although Oladipo Agboluaje’s send-up of an earnest young film-maker trying to create a piece of cinema-verité in Nigeria is fun, it’s hard to see why it merits inclusion here.
Until 4 July (020 7478 0100, www.sohotheatre.com).