Deeply poignant and sparklingly witty
Dad’s Money is a deeply poignant and sparklingly witty depiction of the reunion of two estranged brothers after their father’s funeral. The hinted existence of a store of money which each brother believes to be his by rights is the catalyst for an argument which unites them even as it drives them apart.
The production starts promptly, dreamy guitar music fading, leaving only the sound of distant running water. We watch as Tom Napper and his brother Joe argue violently – an argument nominally about their father’s money but one that digs into far deeper frustrations rooted in Joe’s abandonment of Tom and their father, and, even further back, in Tom’s bullying of his brother when they were children.
The plot is simple – two brothers trapped in cellar, rising floodwaters – but it is in the way the minutiae of their relationship is revealed that this play really sparkles.
Consistently impressive is the way the production sounds. The sound of water is ever-present but never overwhelming. Sound effects are sparse, but perfectly judged, and Gavin Osborne’s specially-composed music gives the production a melancholy, unworldly feel. The staging, too, is well judged, never getting in the way of the action or distracting the eye, but aptly complementing the performance. I was struck by the way the production, through slight modifications in arrangement of a few props and changes in the actors’ body language, made it natural to visualise the slowly rising water.
JJ Wright and Martin Miller (replacing Richard Fry) have outstanding chemistry as the two siblings, and at whatever ebb their interaction is at, whether they are fighting, comforting, or trying to outwit each other, there is not one moment which seemed forced or false.
I was somewhat confused, however, by their promotional literature. The leaflet seems to sell the show as pure comedy, and I was expecting a raunchy, tasteless, post-Six-Feet-Under funereal grab-the-money farce. “Two brothers. One Night. Lots of rain. Who’ll get the cash?” and “Blood is thicker than scrumpy” shouts the leaflet. The show is indeed funny; in fact, it is very funny indeed in places; but I was astonished by how much more emotionally mature this production is than its literature seems to promise.
As a piece of theatre, it is very difficult to fault. Wittily and maturely written and performed with real flair and spark, this is a real gem of a fringe show. Well worth looking past the leaflets and giving a try.
