Funny Money

Being a big fan of Farce, and admiring the work of both Ray and Michael Cooney, I was very excited to hear that The Mendip Players were planning on performing ‘Funny Money’.  Having read this play before, I was also very interested to see how they would pull it off within the confines of the, smallish, Memorial Hall stage.

The curtains were already open, as the audience entered the auditorium.  As it transpired, this was due to the fact that the size of the stage meant that the set had to be built blocking the curtains!  However, whatever the reasons, this was a lovely thing because it allowed the audience the opportunity to have a good look at the set before the show started.  This was good because the set was incredibly well constructed, sturdy and looked very impressive.  The set was a basic box set with doorways off to hidden rooms and a staircase up to the bedrooms, there were also some really nice little touches like the feminist books on the bookcase and the radio (which was used to play the opening music), which all helped with the overall look.  However, next time you produce a similar play you may want to consider placing a light in the rooms that lead off from the living room as even though a lot of action happened in the kitchen and dining room, when the doors were opened these rooms were pitch black.

Make-up, costumes and props were all great and all added a lot to the authenticity of the production.  As were lighting and sound.  Sound was particularly impressive as we could hear every word with crystal clarity with no feedback or interference.

Getting the cast right is always a tricky business and, I think, it is even harder in a farce as the cast must have great timing and speed of delivery.  Therefore, congratulations to The Mendip Players as everyone was just perfectly cast.  Tim Cook played Davenport and managed to walk the line between likability and sleaziness expertly, effortlessly making him disliked and likable at the same time, not an easy task.  Dan Ward was very funny as the harassed Bill and the audience could feel his frustration as the evening progressed.  Tricia Lumley and Miles Whittle were great as Betty and Vic and added so much comedy through looks and expressions, especially as Betty and Vic’s opinions start to differ on the wife-swapping plans.  Fliss Cobley and Jeff Monks helped round out the cast with their smaller roles of “Passer-by” and Slater, although Fliss seems just a little too nice to be the battle-axey Slater.

As with all Farce’s, the main plot and lines mainly go to one person and in this production that was Keith Batten as Henry.  Keith did an amazing job of keeping the plot ticking along and remembering all those lines.  Yes, there was the odd moment he needed some help from the prompt or from his fellow actors but it really didn’t matter.  Keith made Henry so likeable and inept that the audience were rooting for him from his first groggy entrance and when you can get the audience on your character’s side so well, the audience do not care about the odd wobble on stage and besides it helped play into his character traits of drunk and flummoxed!  Helping/hindering Henry with his plan was Jean fantastically played by Nataliya Wills.  Nataliya was definitely the stand out performer on the night, her lines were delivered perfectly and her portrayal of Jean was tremendously funny, she counterbalanced the other actors with ease.  How she played the drunken Jean was a masterclass for the younger Mendip Players who were watching, as she didn’t over ham or go over the top and allowed the humour to come naturally.

Finally, a special mention must go to director, Allie White.  This is a very difficult play to produce due to the size and shape of the stage and the amount of lines.  However, if you were in the audience, you would not have known.  The whole thing looked and felt slick and had a quality that would not have looked out of place on the stage of one of the bigger companies in District 8 (the companies that spend at least 4 times your budget).  Overall, this was another fantastic production and embodied exactly what I have come to expect from The Mendip Players, which is a quality product and an incredibly fun filled evening.  Thank you very much.

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