Swanage Drama Company 
The Mowlem Theatre, Swanage 
KD Johnson 
14 June 2024
The name Cooney is famous in the world of farce – but that would be Ray Cooney, playwright of Run for Your Wife (1983), which ran for 9 years in London’s West End and remains London’s longest running comedy to date. The current play, running at the Mowlem Theatre in Swanage, is by Michael Cooney – his son. Set in 1994 in the living room of Eric and Linda Swan, of 344 Chilton Road in East London, this hilarious 1997 comedy about benefit fraud harks back to those days before political correctness and wokery banned most forms of humour. It contains scenes of bottom pinching, breast fondling and laughing at people with Tourette’s syndrome and/or transvestites. Subtle in its humour it is not – but tonight’s production by Swanage Drama has the audience in stitches.
Eric Swan lost his job two years ago and hasn’t told his wife, Linda, who thinks he is still in gainful employment. In the meantime, he has assumed the rôle of a former lodger, Rupert Thompson, and created a number of dependents of the (now) fictitious lodger whose various ailments, disabilities and other problems attract a host of benefits, amounting to an income of £25,000/year (no mean sum in 1994). Neither his wife, Linda, nor the current lodger, Norman Bassett, know anything about this subterfuge until a benefit inspector arrives – with a briefcase of documentation – to enquire about the multitudinous claims and the welfare of Mr. Thompson and his family. Eric’s sole partner in this conspiracy is his Uncle George, a doctor who has signed off on the illnesses and disabilities and also sells off some of the ill-gotten clinical aids, dressings, wigs, corsetry and maternity clothing that the social services send for the benefit of the fictitious family.
David Wellstead‑Arnold plays a convincing and exhausting part as the fraudster, Eric. He is on stage almost all of the time and has hundreds of complicated lines, gags, stunts and pratfalls to perform. Hopefully he will make it through the run without injuring himself. I am immediately impressed by the ‘phone conversation which he holds with the welfare department in the opening scene. The ‘phone is suitably chunky – as 1990s cordless ‘phones were – but it’s never easy conducting a telephone conversation when there isn’t really anyone on the other end of the line giving you the cues. Somehow he manages to keep up with the complex tissue of lies that his character weaves – handling the names and relationships between the family members, fictitious and otherwise; who died when, where and how and all sorts of other complexity. Bravo!
James Chelton plays a hilarious part as the current (real) lodger, Norman Bassett, who is unwittingly drawn into the subterfuge to cover up Eric’s misdeeds. His comic timing, expressive double-takes and facial expressions are nothing short of brilliant and one of the funniest parts of the show is when he is pretending to be a deaf piano tuner and the other characters are interacting with him as if he were lip-reading.
Victoria Jones is ideally cast as the tenacious benefit inspector, Miss Jenkins, who acts as a deadpan foil to the comic antics of the other cast members. She fits the part so well that it is somehow difficult to believe that, in the script, the rôle is written for a Mr. Jenkins. She is constantly bringing to the fore the holes in the lies and subterfuges that she is being told (thus provoking further lies and subterfuges) without seeming to realise that it is all a web of deceit. Once again comic timing is par excellence and her performance with the cooking sherry (and the washing machine) in the 2nd act evokes much humour.
Eric’s Uncle George, the partner in the benefit fraud, is soon drawn into the deceptions, having called by to return some surgical stockings that he has been unable to sell at the car boot sale. He is well portrayed by Stuart Wright and here is another performer who will be lucky to finish the week without injury. He is variously slammed by doors, manhandled, carried around on a trolley and stuffed into a window seat – all to great comic effect.
Supporting parts are by Livvy Peden, as Eric’s innocent wife, Linda; Natasha Norman, as the lady from the council’s Family Crisis Department and Becky Stares as Relationship Guidance Counsellor, Doctor Chapman. Later additions are Simon Wells, who has stepped in to learn the part of Mr. Forbright the undertaker at 3 weeks notice; Ro Smith, as Ms. Cowper, the senior investigator from the benefits department, and Hannah Chelton, as Norman’s fiancée, Brenda.
Maybe this comedy is not something that could be written these days – it feels as if it belongs to an era even earlier than the 1990s – but as a hilarious evening’s distraction from the dismal weather it is ideal and I recommend it. Our thanks and congratulations are due to director, Brian Travers, and to the cast and crew.
The show runs again on Friday 14th and Saturday 15th at 7.30.
