Tons Of Money
by Will Evans & Arthur Valentine, adapted by Alan Ayckbourn;
producer Bernard West
producer Bernard West
1-3 December 1994
Tons of Money is a 1922 farce in which a hard-up inventor pretends to be his cousin in order to escape the clutches of his creditors. Aubrey Allington is a hopelessly impractical inventor who is deep in debt. When he inherits a large sum from a relation in Mexico he stands to see none of it because his creditors would claim it all. His resourceful wife comes up with a solution: the cousin to whom the legacy reverts on Aubrey’s death is believed to be dead. Aubrey’s supposed death in an explosion in his laboratory enables him to come to life again as the cousin from Mexico, able to collect the full legacy. He reappears in an extravagant Mexican disguise. Unfortunately for the conspirators, the cousin’s long-estranged wife claims Aubrey as her own, and a further fake suicide – this time by drowning – enables Aubrey to escape her. Meanwhile Sprules, the family butler, has got wind of the plot, and seeks to cash in by arranging for his brother to impersonate the Mexican cousin. The impostor’s arrival necessitates a further reincarnation of Aubrey, this time as the new curate of a nearby parish. He tries to come to an agreement with the pretended Mexican, but they are interrupted by the arrival of the very-much-alive real cousin. In the end it turns out that there is no legacy to be had: the money has been appropriated by the Mexican Revolutionaries. |
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