"Tons of Money" By Will Evans and Valentine adapted by Alan Ayckbourn
Richmond Theatre 19th Jan 2009

If truth be known, we Brits try and pretend that we are all into that serious stuff, but what we really love is a damn good laugh. All the great playwrights knew it from Shakespeare to Garrick to Pinero to Bennett to Ayckbourn. No mistake that Will Evans and Valentine delivered then with a play jammed full of gags and comic business and 733 performances when it was first produced. This play is not a piece of classical theatre, it is just one of that huge ocean of plays from the early 20th century that made people laugh. The play started being written in 1914 and finally made it to a producer in 1921. It opened in March 1922 in Southport and then transferred to the West End. This particular adaptation was made by Alan Ayckbourn in 1985 for the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round and was his production during his tenure of the National Theatre. This latest production by Bill Kenwright started life at the Theatre Royal at Windsor in Nov 2008 and is touring till Feb 2009 before it hopefully transfers to the West End.Caroline Langrishe (Louise) and Mark Curry (Aubrey) very cleverly guide this superb cast through the simplest of plots with consummate ease. Christopher Timothy as the Butler Sprules and Finty Williams as the maid Simpson set us off with a string of gags, Eric Richard as Chesterman sets up our plot and Lysette Anthony as Jean ends up finding that her dead husband keeps coming back to life three times including Henery played by Eric Carte and the real husband, Maitland played by Anthony Gabriel.
Amidst this mayhem of explosion, drowning, conniving and general rushing about comes Janet Henfrey (Miss Mullet) and Keith Clifford (Giles) who both deliver such immaculate timed one liners and put downs. Indeed the audience at Richmond hardly had time to laugh at one joke before another had been delivered. And laugh they did. This very simple plot involves a couple who owe to all and sundry suddenly discovering that they have been left tons of money. Ah, but what to do as all and sundry will want their pennyworth. The answer is simple, die. Or rather die, come back to life as your dead cousin remarry your wife and start again. But it all goes horribly wrong when the cousin turns up three times and all are married, apparently to your wife’s best friend who doesn’t seem to mind to whom she is married to. As this credit crunch hits us there could well be many of us who might find this a sensible answer to our troubles. Hold fast dear friend, watch the play, have a good laugh and chuckle your way to prosperity.

‘Tons of Money’ was reviewed by Evan Rule