A frantic farce
What would you do if, on the tube on the way home, you accidentally swapped your suitcase for another one with three quarters of a million pounds in it? Henry Perkins, a settled clerk in the London suburbs, decides to keep the money – despite the fact that there is clearly a large-scale crime behind it. His plan is clear: drive home, load his wife Jean into the first taxi to the airport and fly her and the money to somewhere where the real owners of the briefcase won’t find them.
As expected in a good farce, however, circumstances are against him: Jean is roasting a chicken to celebrate Henry’s birthday and doesn’t want to hear about leaving immediately, and the Perkins family friends Vic and Betty arrive at the party and don’t understand why the whole party is cancelled. Henry’s plan is further complicated by two police officers – one pragmatically venal, the other stubbornly committed to justice – and an inappropriately verbose taxi driver. Gradually, everyone begins to impersonate someone else, lie piles on lie, leaving the living room for the airport is still not possible, and the mysterious Godfather begins to appear on the horizon, intent on uncompromisingly demanding his briefcase...
The work of Ray Cooney, a classic of English farce, always guarantees a frenzied situational rollercoaster of great fun, and Funny Money are a masterful demonstration of his ability to make an incredible carousel of comedic madness out of a single situation. Our audiences will recall the successful production of another of Cooney’s excellent comedies, Two Into One. It is no coincidence that its director, Stanislav Slovák, brings Funny Money to our stage.
