David (Jeremy Neumark Jones — pictured) is sitting in his flat, chewing his nails. He stares at his laptop: what’s he going to say to Sandrine, his new French girlfriend?

Inspiration dawns: he will initiate a discussion about British sandwiches. Disembodied Sandrine (Bella Hammad — heard only over a loudspeaker) replies. Clipped and impatient of voice, she plainly has no interest in sandwiches, British or otherwise. This relationship is going nowhere.

Thus begins Dennis Kelly’s play Love and Money, here revived by student company Cutting the Edge Productions. As time goes on, we learn that David has been married to shopaholic Jess (Sarah Perry), who tried to commit suicide after running up a £70,000 debt on her credit cards. David also needs a job, and attends a disastrous interview with former girlfriend, now company boss Val (a realistically crisp and bossy performance from Rachel Bull). Offered a lowly start in the stockroom, he whinges: “Everything is measured in terms of sales targets, pay grades, and pensions”.

The action moves on to a pub. Here, Val’s supercilious sidekick Duncan (Etiene Ekpo-Utip) is trying to seduce office girl Debbie (Isabel Drury, giving a beautifully judged cameo) with details of his flash new car. Suddenly there’s a welcome spark of humour as seemingly humdrum Debbie reveals that she’s rebelled, and been sacked for sending out pornographic photocopies — she drew penises on the back of sales literature.

Love and Money could do with more unpredictable moments like this, as it dispenses the oft-repeated moral message that money, material things, and unloving sex do not make for good relationships and happy people. But the real problem is that the play was written in 2006, before the credit crunch exploded. As a result — and through no fault of Cutting the Edge’s hard-working cast — it feels a bit like yesterday’s news. We no longer need warning about the consequences of too much debt and desire — do we?