Review: TONS OF MONEY at the Shaw Festival

Living a lifestyle beyond one's means and being prone to excesses in all aspects of life often may catch up with you (especially if there is no money in the family vault) . That is unless a long lost relative leaves you everything in their will, and they day is saved. Therein gives just a glimpse into the super silly premise of the delightful farce, TONS OF MONEY, now playing at the Royal George Theatre of the Shaw Festival in Niagara on the Lake.

This is the last season before The Royal George  will be torn down and rebuilt, and this farce seems a proper fitting send off. The show's program delves into the Shaw's history of presenting farces, and if TONS  OF MONEY is not quite the roll on the floor laughing out loud type, it certainly garnered enough laughs in the final act to charm everyone in the storied walls of this intimate gem of a theatre.

Aubrey Henry Maitland Allington and his wife Louise live a carefree life in the their lovely home with servants, a gardener and a near deaf aunt. The bills pile up and are literally strewn about the room in shreds, as if confetti after a night long party. On the brink of financial ruin, a lawyer arrives telling them Aubrey's estranged brother has died and left him a fortune. But that fortune will only pay for the huge debt the Allington's have, leaving them again penniless. The pair devise a scheme to fake Aubrey's death and he would return in disguise as the long believed dead cousin George, who is next in line to receive the fortune. The plot sounds complicated, but what farce is not made up of convoluted stories. When the butler gets a gander at the will, he sees that he may be able to get the cash if he can have his own brother  disguise himself as George and take the money.

Mike Nadajewski is a rubbery, lanky man who has great fun as Aubrey. His devil may care attitude and great comic timing were highlights as he masqueraded as George and later, the town pastor.

Julia Course as Louise gives a comically nuanced performance, prone to fits of bawling from grief and brilliant sudden ideas (think  Lucille Ball in I LOVE LUCY--- "I've got an idea" comes out of her mouth endlessly and the schemes are brilliant).

Lindsay Wu is the somewhat brainless Jean Everard, wife of George. She miraculously arrives to reclaim George, who incidentally has spent  many years imprisoned in Mexico. When the first  George impostor (aka Aubrey) arrives, more comedy ensues  (notice I said first impostor). Two others are to follow. And eventually they bump into each other! Meanwhile ditzy wife Jean is sure each one of them is her real husband.

Andre Morin brings a buoyant campiness to the role of Henery (aka Impostor George #2). He hams it up and sets the pace for a series of daffy improbabilities. Sepehr Reybod does turn up as the real George, and by then the total  chaos piques. A mad parade of George's takes to the stage and a tidy ending takes place.

Nehassaiu De Gannes, Ron Kennell, Qasim Khan, Marla McLean and Greame Somerville flesh out the cast and add to the general frivolity of the comedy 

Authors Will Evans and Valentine fashion a play of farcical proportions that tick all the boxes. Comical repetition, stock characters, impossible deaths by explosion or mysterious drowning all lead to hearty laughs. Written in 1922, and seldom produced, TONS OF MONEY is a delightful trifle that is sure to please as a breezy summer escape. 

Stage Director Eda Holmes uses her dance background to ensure that the action glides, jumps and prances in all the right moments with the proper comedic timing necessary to elicit comic silliness. The lovely sets and costumes are designed by Judith Bowden, and do a fantastic job of making the small Royal George stage look appropriately grand and cavernous.