Theater Review—

A Delightful ‘Delivery’ At The Little Theatre

By Julie Stern

From Shakespeare to Shaw, Jane Austen to Dickens, the Brits have perfected the art of satirizing the earnest institutions of virtuous do-gooderism. Re-reading Wilkie Collins’ archetypal detective mystery The Moonstone, I was charmed by a reference to a group called The Select committee of the Mothers’-Small-Clothes-Conversion-Society, whose object was “to rescue unredeemed [drunken] fathers’ trousers from the pawnbroker, and to prevent their resumption, on the part of the irreclaimable parent, by abridging them immediately to suit the proportions of the innocent son.”

Michael Cooney’s farce Cash on Delivery, which opened on May 13 at The Little Theatre in Newtown, takes a poke at the Byzantine bureaucracy of the English Social Services Department.

Ashamed to tell his wife that he was made redundant (laid off) from his job at the Electricity Board two years ago, Eric Swan has been scamming them ever since, by creating a household of imaginary tenants, each with multiple issues requiring specific stipends: unemployment, work related injuries, a deaf child, burial costs, and so forth.

The swirl of deceptions hit the fan when a resolute inspector arrives to garner the signature of one of the imaginary tenants on the same day that the man has been reported dead, and a grief counselor dispatched by the bureau arrives minutes later, to console the grieving widow and arrange for burial. Lying and confabulating as fast as he can, Eric is forced to dragoon his real upstairs tenant into playing a variety of parts, male and female, alive and dead.

This is soon complicated by Eric’s Uncle George, who has been peddling the various goods supplied by the National Health Service for fictional patients — wigs, corsets, brassieres — at flea markets. Eric’s wife, Linda, having seen these things in the closet, is worried that her husband is a secret cross dresser, and brings in a psychologist…

In past years The Little Theater has played host to some pretty shopworn varieties of the English farce, and it was with some reluctance that we arrived for this one. Happily, it was delightful.

The set design, with its mandatory quota of doors, closets and windowseats through which embarrassing visitors can be hastily shoved, calls for some increasingly frantic pacing. Director Gene Golaszewski keeps things moving crisply and the audience, after the first few minutes, was rolling with laughter.

Playwright Michael Cooney is the son of Ray Cooney, long established in the genre. Perhaps because he learned some things from his father, or perhaps because it is too new to be dated, this show was genuinely entertaining. The cast comprised a mix of Town Players stalwarts, and some welcome newcomers to the neighborhood. Nick Kaye as Eric, Alena Cybart-Persenaire as wife Linda, and Angela Bowmen as Ms Cowper, a Thatcheresque manager from the office, have all played together before. Similarly, Tim Huebenthal as the reluctant upstairs foil to Eric’s schemes, and Ron Malyszka as the resolute, but gradually disintegrating inspector, shine in their roles.

Terry Johanesen is both hapless and helpful as Uncle George. Sarah Cameron Nizzardo is daffy as the do-gooder grief-counselor, John Pyron is totally intimidated as the anxious psychologist, Shawn Brown is a properly lugubrious undertaker, and Liesbet Higham is totally confused as Huebenthal’s fiancée who arrives to be told that he is married, the father of three children, and dead, all at one fell swoop.

As I said, the production was very enjoyable, just the thing if you want a light evening out. My one quibble is an old one. I realize that the theme of the satire is distinctly British, and it would not resonate nearly as well if it were transferred into a story about American welfare cheats.  However, I wish they would stop aiming for authenticity by trying to use English accents, since none of the characters manage to use the same ones.  In fact (and wisely), some of the actors just spoke in their natural voices, and it was fine. Even Nick Kaye, as Eric, who at least sounded consistent, would have been just as convincing if he had stuck to his native tongue.

(Performances continue Friday and Saturday evenings, and Sunday afternoons, until May 22. Tickets are $20, $10 for ages 10 and under… but parents should note this play contains adult themes that may not be appropriate for children.

Call 203-270-9144 for reservations. The theater is at 18 Orchard Hill Road.)