Get set for one of the first big comedies of the season, as Maleth brings Michael Cooney’s side-splitting farce Cash on Delivery to the Manoel Theatre!

Cash on Delivery is the story of Eric Swan, an unemployed landlord who has cheated the Department of Social Security for years by claiming thousands of pounds’ worth of benefits for his imaginary lodgers’ make-believe ailments. The proverbial manure hits the fan when Mr Jenkins, a nosy and tenacious inspector from the DSS, comes over to investigate. Eric Swan employs the help of his gullible lodger, Norman, and his cheerfully cooperative Uncle George in an attempt to ward off Mr Jenkins’ well-founded suspicions. So follows a fast-paced adventure where Eric pretends to be a lodger with a limp, Norman becomes his own son (a deaf piano tuner) on the same morning that his father (ie himself) just died in an unfortunate lumberjack-related incident. Uncle George is unsuccessful at pretending to be either Eric Swan or his wife Linda, although he finally comes in useful, thanks to a rather too convincing interpretation of a corpse.

Fresh from his onstage forays in Some Explicit Polaroids, renowned stage actor and director Narcy Calamatta returns to direct this comedy as well as to star as the unassertive marriage counsellor Dr Chapman. The cast also includes theatre veterans Joe Pace as Eric, Malcolm Galea as Norman, Colin Willis as Uncle George, Renato Dimech as Mr Jenkins, Marvic Cordina as Linda, Silvio Catania as Mr Forbright, and Sharon Bezzina who plays Sally Chessington from the Family Crisis Department. Suffice it to say, she has come to the right place.

Cash on Delivery will run at the Manoel Theatre between 3 and 5 November.