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by Will Evans & Valentine, directed by Eda Holmes

Shaw Festival, Royal George Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake

May 24-October 5, 2025

Louise: “I have an idea”

After the success of One Man, Two Guvnors last year, the Shaw Festival seems to have rediscovered the pleasure of farce. This year the Festival is presenting Tons of Money from 1922, the immediate predecessor to the famous series of twelve Aldwych farces, the epitome of the British version of the farce genre. Tons of Money by Will Evans and Valentine (aka Archibald Thomas Pechey) is intentionally built on situations that are ridiculous and improbable with everything on stage aimed at producing laughter. That an audience will join in the spirit of farce is not a given. The cast and director have to guide an audience into a world where coincidences and far-fetched plots are the norm. This requires a delicate touch and the present production of Tons of Money would be much funnier if the director and principal actors were not trying so hard to make it funny.

Tons of Money concerns the unsuccessful inventor Aubrey Allington, who, with his wife Louise, have been living beyond their means for years. Judith Bowden’s gorgeous set and the luxe outfits she gives Louise immediately convey the couple extravagance. When the play opens Aubrey receives the usual pile of bills he does intend to pay. One letter, however, stands out. If Aubrey does not pay £500 by the end of the week, a bailiff will be sent round. Yet, just when Aubrey and Louise despair of finally having to face reality, a solicitor, James Chesterman, drops by to give the Allingtons good news. Aubrey’s estranged brother Henry has died in Mexico and had left his entire six-figure fortune to Aubrey. Should Aubrey die, the fortune will go to Aubrey’s cousin George Maitland.

Aubrey and Louise’s celebrate their good luck until they realize that the inheritance will exactly cover all the money they presently owe. Louise utters what will be catchphrase, “I have an idea” and hatches a plot. Aubrey will fake his death and then return as his cousin George. Aubrey’s “death” will wipeout their debts and then all the inheritance will be theirs when George collects it. As it happens, Aubrey’s butler Sprules has read the will and hatches a plan of his own. Chaos ensues.

In general, the rule in presenting comedy is that the more seriously the characters take the events they are involved in the funnier the production will be. Eda Holmes has directed numerous complex shows at the Shaw, such as The Apple Cart by Shaw in 2023 and Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia in 2013, but never an outright farce. As her model for how to direct Tons of Money she uses a minute-long clip on the internet of co-author Will Evans performing his vaudeville routine in 1899 (see www.youtube.com). It’s amazing to see Evans’s acrobatics and it’s also amazing that a film of it even exists online. Nevertheless, it is rather a leap to assume that after Evans switched from vaudeville to straight theatre, he would ever encourage his actors to imitate his signature style of 21 years before. Indeed, why should a modern director encourage her own actors to do so?

Yet, that is exactly what Holmes does. Mike Nadajewski as Aubrey and Julia Course as Louise never sit down on the sofa to discuss plans but simultaneous leap to sit on the back of the sofa with their feet on the cushions. Holmes has Nadajewski as Aubrey and later as George and André Morin as George jump and tumble over the sofa and somersault across the floor throug much of their onstage time. This would not matter if it made the farce funnier, but it doesn’t. It looks instead as if the actors are trying hard to make the funnier, which unfortunately suggests that they or the director think the play needs to be punched up.

If Holmes were looking for models for a period-sensitive comedic acting style, she could have looked at movies from 1922. Film great Max Linder, the first known actor to record the mirror gag that Holmes later references, is the film comedian who influenced others like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton to turn away from slapstick to comedy of character. Aubrey has a fascinatingly contradictory character that could be emphasized if Holmes chose to, but she has chosen to go for acrobatics instead.

Holmes has an excellent cast to work with. Mike Nadajewski, Julia Course and André Morin have played a wide range of roles in a wide range of styles. They could do whatever she asked them to do. In Tons of Money, Holmes seems to have asked them to play as near to over the top as possible. Setting that flaw aside, Nadajewski well conveys the conflict in Aubrey between maintain his devil-may-care exterior and his panic-fist approach when anything goes wrong. Course plays Louise as slightly dim, although Louise is the brains of the pair. What Course makes so comic is Louise’s seemingly unperturbable optimism after one plan after another goes south. Morin begins his performance as one of the faux-Georges in quite a restrained manner, gradually showing us how George’s discomfort rises to panic level when he meets Jean Everard, the wife no one told him he had.

All the other characters act as a foil to these three. Graeme Somerville and Marla McLean are marvellous as the Allingtons’ butler and maid Sprules and Simpson. Their characters’ serious approach to the plot and their satire of their masters is the approach that really should govern the entire production. That’s why whenever Somerville and McLean are on stage the play seems to have found it footing again.

Nehassaiu deGannes is a treat as Aubrey’s Aunt Benita. Though she has a catchphrase, “You don’t need to shout – I’m not deaf”, deGannes manages to deliver it as if it were new every time. The co-authors likely meant to mock Aunt Benita for being hard of hearing, but deGannes does not make the character seem foolish. Indeed, anyone who has reached a certain age will likely sympathize with Aunt Benita’s situation.

In other roles, Ron Kennell is very funny as the monosyllabic gardener Giles, whose terseness starkly contrasts with the Allingtons’ non-stop chatter. Qasim Khan’s James Chesterman is the most logical character in the play who tries to counter his emotionally volatile clients with calmness. Lindsay Wu plays Jean as a gratefully much toned-down version of Louise, whereas as Sepehr Reybod plays another George so far near the top he has nowhere to go.

While it is great to see a farce from the Shaw Festival’s original mandate again, one wishes Holmes had not stumbled across that movie clip of the acrobatic Evans and focussed more on the characters and their varied reactions to the twists and turns of the story they find themselves in. Then Tons of Money might also have been tons of fun.

Christopher Hoile

Photos: Julia Course as Louise and Mike Nadajewski as Aubrey perusing a will; Julia Course as Louise and Mike Nadajewski as Aubrey; Qasim Khan as James Chesterman, Julia Course as Louise, Mike Nadajewski as “George” Sepehr Reybod as George, Lindsay Wu as Jean and Nehassaiu deGannes as Betina.. © 2025 David Cooper.

For tickets visit: www.shawfest.com.