The Shaw Festival Theatre Review: Will Evans and Valentine’s Tons of Money
By Ross
“I have an idea…” she says brightly, and with that lightbulb moment, most of the mischief of this fabulous farce flies forward. It’s the lightest of its form, this particular play, never really rising above some of the more well-formulated farces from its time period (or Shaw’s last season, One Man, Two Guvnors), but Tons of Money, written with a solid dose of wit and charm by Will Evans (1924’s The Other Mr. Gibbs) and Valentine (1922’s “The Adjusters“) in 1922, does find a lot of festive silliness in its deadly constructions. It all begins with a late morning wake-up call, when a deep-in-debt inventor, living the fanciful high life with his wife, trying his hardest to ignore the piles of bills that are screaming his name louder and louder, is gifted with a way out. This fabulously created Aubrey Henry Maitland Allington, deviously well played by Mike Nadajewski (Shaw’s On The Razzle), is the most over the top fop you will find, flapping like a grand peacock with a pompous degree of self-delusion and importance. He, with a fiendish assist from his wife, Louise Allington, perfectly portrayed by Julia Course (Shaw’s Gaslight), set upon a devilishly ridiculous charade to avoid all those pesky creditors and their payment notices, and continue living like royalty. An escape plan comes into focus when a lawyer by the name of James Chesterman, well performed by Qasim Khan (CS’s Hamlet in High Park), stops by to inform him that he has been left a healthy sum of money in an inheritance. Aubrey and his wife would rather find a way to keep all the newly discovered wealth for themselves and ignore their debtors. It is inside that greedy skip-away degree of overt privilege and desire when her lightbulb moment arrives, not once, but numerous times. And each time it ups the ante on the explosive and ludicrous hilariousness that follows soon after.
Directed wisely, but maybe a bit too loosely, by Eda Holmes (Centaur Theatre’s Sakura – After Chekhov), the devious pair work hard to “figure it all out“, while their long legs delightfully fly them about that gorgeously well-appointed sitting room in the prettiest of outfits, thanks to set and costume designer Judith Bowden (Arena Stage’s Junk), with warm lighting by Kevin Lamotte (Shaw’s Brigadoon) and delightful original music by Andy Ballantyne (Shaw’s The Duke and Two Irenes). “What is the joke?” one of the characters asks, well, the central construct, devised by his wife, is that Aubrey will fake die in an ill-timed explosion, only to return as the seemingly secondary benefactor to the inheritance, collect the money, and reengage with his wife who’s now a widow, so they can both wave goodbye to all those bills that are in the now dead Aubrey’s name, and skip off into a more solevant future together. It all sounds perfect, in a greedy kinda way, but as in all perfectly formed farces, the plan always goes awry, and in Tons of Money, it does it more than once, captivatingly well.
With two clever servants, Simpson and Sprules, embodied magnificently by Marla McLean and Graeme Somerville, the team that masterfully delivered Dear Liar to the Speigletent of Shaw, watching on from the sidelines, embracing each other with seductive near kisses and embraces, a few other souls have some other plans up their working-class sleeves. And in that charming picture frame, some funny mirror dances are set in motion, and not just once, thanks to both André Morin (Shaw’s One Man, Two Guvnors) and Sepehr Reybod (Soulpepper/Segal Centre’s English). They each bring a healthy dose of humor to the proceedings, kissing and matching with the ever-willing Jean Everard, joyfully embodied by Lindsay Wu (Shaw’s The Orphan of Chao), a friend of the Allingtons who has been waiting for years for the reconnection this play promises.
The lawyer keeps popping by, changing the ever-shifting dynamic with reconstructions that fling the scheming married couple into all kinds of hilarious contortions that make this farce worth visiting. There are a few roadblocks that stall the process, and both come from a couple of written-in parts that add little to the romp other than the repetition of the same jokes that lose their appeal quite quickly, at no fault of the actor delivering them. Aubrey’s aunt, Miss Benita Mullett, played carefully by Nehassaiu de Gannes (Shaw’s The House That Will Not Stand), and their old man gardener, Giles, played by Ron Kennell (CS’s Picasso at the Lapin Agile), slide their two cents in as dictated by the slim script, but each of the roles don’t offer much, unless you didn’t hear the joke delivered the first time round (not to worry if that’s the case, as the play gives you ample opportunity to hear it repeated again and again).
The true fun of the Shaw Festival‘s Tons of Money lies within the main complication and the repeated need for Aubrey to find a new way to die so all will work out in the end. We must find our way to stay with them, rooting for this desperate fop and his equally desperate wife to outsmart the will and the want of those unseen creditors that are surrounding the estate with their outstretched hands. Do we wholeheartedly root for these two superficial souls? Or for the greedy, devious servants and their foolish relative to triumph over death and discovery? In a way, we have to, if we are going to fully buy into and enjoy the farcical desire to get away with the impersonation parade and walk away with Tons of Money. It’s a ‘dead or alive‘ moment for these souls, and as delivered by the most excellent and farcically funny cast of Shaw pros, we can’t help but be thoroughly entertained, from beginning to end, by this ridiculously fun farce. Even if it’s not as top-notch as other farces I’ve seen in the past, I’m forever thrilled and thankful that the Shaw Festival continues to invest in this ferociously funny form of theatre.
