Review: Cash On Delivery (The Mill at Sonning)

Review by Daz Gale

⭐️⭐️

Regular readers will know one of my favourite theatres to visit is The Mill at Sonning, a picturesque venue near Reading that provides much more than simply a show with each trip,  bringing an experience, with a stunning meal and their unrivalled welcoming nature, it is a place I always look forward to visiting. This is even truer given some of the changes they made in the last year, resulting in an eclectic and dynamic mix of programming and culminating with their outstanding production of My Fair Lady last Christmas. My first 2026 visit sees a return to familiar territory, with a name synonymous with The Mill, as they present Michael Cooney’s Cash on Delivery, but would this production be full of riches, or would I still find myself waiting for the delivery long after it was due?

Written in 1996, Cash on Delivery is a British farce, centring on Eric Swan, a man who has been fraudulently claiming a host of government benefits by inventing fictitious lodgers. His latest lie may have been one too many, though, as a routine visit from a Department of Social Security inspector sets in motion a disastrous chain of events, with more surprise visitors, unwitting accomplices, mistaken identities and a web of lies that threatens to come undone at the worst possible moment. Is there any way Eric can get out of this situation, and will everyone even make it out of there alive?

Michael Cooney’s writing contains all of the necessary ingredients of the farce, with increasingly outlandish situations, larger-than-life characters and a ridiculousness to the whole thing. The problem? I just didn’t find it very funny. It’s safe to say other members of the audience certainly did, but Cash on Delivery is a play that seems to cater to the main demographic at The Mill at Sonning, which is absolutely fine - however, their programming over the last year suggested bolder and more varied choices so in some respects, this feels like a step backwards. Though it is perfectly understandable to do a play as safe and familiar as this one, it created an unnecessary divide between the audience, with a noticeable split of those who were laughing frequently, and some who remained stony-faced throughout.

Not every joke landed, with some truly awkward silences where laughter should have roared. Most worryingly, though, was how dated Cash on Delivery felt. Now thirty years old, elements of the story certainly haven’t aged well, though there is an argument for the “heroic” nature of a loveable rogue cheating a system that seems to enjoy cheating the worse off of the population. If I hadn’t read when this was written, I would have assumed this was written in the 1970s, such is the nature of how dated and stuffy some of the dialogue is. Rather than create a timelessness as some of these older plays manage, it is a stark reminder of how far we have come. Then there are the most concerning elements that haven’t aged well - most notably a storyline involving cross-dressing, with worrying dialogue that borders on being offensive, even mildly homophobic in its approach. Lines such as “You’re a cross-dresser” with a response of “Cross. I’m absolutely furious” set the tone for this play, and if you didn’t find that funny, chances are you won’t be laughing at much else throughout. While Cash on Delivery may be a product of its time, perhaps it wouldn’t have done this production any harm to tweak the wording to make the whole thing far less problematic.

If Michael Cooney’s writing didn’t do it for me, Ron Aldridge’s direction didn’t fare much better. Though this is a farce, you would expect a certain quality to it, with the chaotic nature needing to be organised chaos in order to pay off. Aldridge struggled to manage this, with situations playing out sluggishly, dialogue not given the necessary pauses and inflections in order to land the punchline, and some utterly confusing and bizarre choices that left the whole thing feeling extremely under-directed. This can be noted in some of the one-dimensional and even wooden performances from a doubtlessly talented cast, who sadly had been given either the wrong direction or simply not enough direction to bring this to life. Missed opportunities to land the jokes, especially when it comes to sight gags and physical humour, were never taken, with a character at the front door shouting to someone on the roof, only looking the wrong way, a prime example of the lack of attention to detail that makes Cash on Delivery such a massive misfire.

The cast does their best with the tools they have been given, with several managing to lift the material thanks to their own talents. Steven Pinder is one of the best examples of this with his leading turn as Eric Swan. Though he struggles to stifle his own giggles as the madness continues, he is a commanding leading man and holds the whole thing together beautifully. He threatens to be eclipsed by James Bradshaw’s fabulously comedic turn as Norman Bassett - a character who seems to have a touch of Frank Spencer about him, though the material never quite allows him to reach his comic greatness. The influences in Cash on Delivery are clear to see, with Michael Shaw bearing more than a passing resemblance to “Uncle Albert” from Only Fools and Horses as the purely coincidental Uncle George, with Oscar Cleaver making the most of a nothingy role as Dr Chapman with a couple of good bits of physical comedy.

I love seeing a good farce in the theatre, and, on paper, Cash On Delivery should have ticked all of the boxes for me. Sadly, however, it proved farcical for all the wrong reasons, with poor and outdated writing, and extremely subpar direction failing to match the usual high standard The Mill at Sonning prides itself on. It is a testament to the quality of the theatre that even a show as underwhelming as this doesn’t dampen the whole experience - while a trip there is certainly never going to be a two-star experience, disappointingly, on this occasion, this play is. A reminder that perhaps some things are best left in the past, I’ll be looking to the future for this theatre as the rest of their 2026 season looks far more promising.

Cash on Delivery plays at The Mill at Sonning until 4th April. Tickets from https://millatsonning.com/Events/cash-on-delivery/

Photos by Carla Joy Evans