"Hanky Panky Under the Blanky" at TLP

Modern physical slapstick comedy was enhanced by Lucille Ball, “Oh Lucy!” Ricky Ricardo would lament. My generation remembers skits on The Carol Burnett Show. Now the king of slapstick belongs to Chevy Chase. It’s just plain silly comedy but it’s funny and it makes us laugh.

This type of humor doesn’t always transfer to the big screen as we saw in the movie version of Funny Money with Chevy Chase, but worked well in the old sitcoms, and works especially well in the British Farce Funny Money at Timber Lake Playhouse.

Henry A. Perkins arrives home from work on his birthday acting very suspicious. He explains to his wife Jean he has found a briefcase with 735,000 pounds in 50 pound notes. He buys a one way ticket to Barcelona so “Mr. Nasty”, the owner of the briefcase, doesn’t come after them and the money. Then he orders a taxi and tomboyish Billie, played by the energetic Samantha Joy Dubina, arrives to pick them up. At the end of the night Billie tells them she’s “learned enough to write a James Bond film” from her experiences with the Perkins and company.

A nosy detective, played by Zack Powell, follows him home from the pub and also thinks he has been acting suspicious. A few payoffs later and he follows along with anything they say.

To complicate the evening even more, their friends Betty and Vic Johnson arrive because they had plans to celebrate Henry’s birthday. Betty is played by the very sexy redhead Sarah Dothage and Vic by Jeremy Day, whose facial expressions show his exasperation when a detective shows up about a dead body found in the river and the lies begin to mount. They need a tote board hanging in the back to keep track of the changing character names and the three identical briefcases. “Oh Lucy!”

The pot continues to bubble and bowl as Henry’s wife Jean gets drunker and the “Hanky panky under the blanky” gets funnier. How the actors kept a straight face showed their professionalism but they were certainly having fun. I heard the audience members laughing out loud at the mishaps and mistaken identities but the comedy can get a little raunchy with plenty of sexual and gay innuendos. This is more of an adult comedy. But if you need a good laugh don’t miss Funny Money.

Best actor must go to Ben Mason for his role as Henry Perkins. He flubbed a few lines on opening night but his physical comedy and the scene where he recaps all the mistaken identities more than redeem him. That was probably the funnies scene of the evening along with drunken Jean sitting on Betty’s lap.

The set was a modern suburban London home with lots of doors to stash people behind. And people would pop in and out of the front, dining room, and kitchen doors. Funny Money plays now through August 21st at Timber Lake Playhouse in Mount Carroll.

(by Barb Benson, Guest Columnist)