Cash on Delivery – Mill at Sonning ★★★★

Writer Michael Cooney (Murder in Mind, Point of Death, Tom, Dick and Harry) might be referred to as a ‘nepo baby’ these days, being the child of famous farce creator Ray, but you could argue that he’s had the advantage of the best training in the business because he was right there watching and learning from his father. In Cash on Delivery he uses all the devices of the traditional farce as we watch plans collapsing, characters getting deeper into unfortunate positions of their own making and language being used to confuse with double meanings. Cash on Delivery is very much a situational comedy that piles on the fun and games as one man’s lies come home to roost all in one day. It is set in a substantial house somewhere in London’s Mile End thirty years ago, and it is where Eric and Linda Swan have been taking in lodgers to help pay the bills. It transpires that Eric has been committing a massive benefit fraud for two years since unexpectedly being made redundant, and he has been using the names and fictional health issues of his past and current tenants in order to keep a roof over their heads. He also has a useful side hustle going in partnership with his uncle George to offload stolen goods from George’s job as a hospital worker. Eric has done all this while maintaining to his wife that he is still gainfully employed, but she is getting suspicious that he is hiding something from her. What unfolds is the unravelling of Eric’s deceit as various public servants visit the house to check claims, offer help with sudden fictitious bereavements and counsel his marriage. His hapless tenant Norman Bassett is also drawn into Eric’s web of lies as Eric confides in him about what has really been going on over the years and how desperate he has become.

Director Ron Aldridge (It Runs in the Family) brings his experience of writing and acting in comic plays and has taken a cast of players who come well-versed in comic timing and pratfalls to deliver a delightful and preposterous version of Cooney’s farce. Steven Pinder (Wicked, Brookside, The Invisible Man) takes on the central role of Eric Swan. He delivers a world-weary performance with an air of resignation about the place in which he now finds himself. His character becomes increasingly exasperated as he finds all his tales and attempts to cover up his illegal activities are just making his miseries worse. His confused wife, Linda, is charmingly played by Natasha Grey (The Merchant of Venice, See How They Run, Run for Your Wife), who channels her character’s puzzlement at the behaviour of her husband and his secrets with gusto. James Bradshaw (Three Men in a Boat, It Runs in the Family, Frozen) is a seasoned comedy performer at The Mill and clearly enjoys this latest role as the unfortunate Norman Bassett. His mole-like and naïve persona is all scrunched up and blinking until he starts to understand the situations into which he is being placed. His whole body changes as he conveys his discomfort at being pulled into the con. His best moments come when he has to impersonate other characters to support Swan’s increasingly outlandish stories. Mr Jenkins, the gullible first visitor from the Department of Social Security, is entertainingly played by Harry Gostelow (Don’t Rock the Boat, It’s Her Turn Now, House on Cold Hill). His gangly goofing and strangled estuary English are every inch of what we expect from a man sent to check benefit claims and being put in farcical positions by the fraudster. He gets some of the best physical comedy during the show and is a joy to watch as he grapples with soap suds and a plunger. Michael Shaw (Funny Money, Out of Order, An Inspector Calls) is a sprightly Uncle George. He cheerfully engages in the indignities and slapstick, as well as the supporting role of the long-john-wearing corpse that causes so much confusion to all the visitors to the house.