Performances 7-12 December 2026 in the Auditorium

Brief: Henry has acquired a briefcase that’s not his. It also happens to have a LOT of money inside. What follows is a superb farce that accelerates and spirals with delightful comedic pacing. This is going to be done very much like a sitcom taped in front of a live studio audience, only all in one take! The timing, pacing, and physical comedy will be rehearsed like a dance, and the ability to perform accents and larger than life characters is a plus.

HENRY PERKINS Male | Open Ethnicity | 30’s-50’s The play's engine. An ordinary, mild-mannered accountant whose one impulsive decision sends everything into free fall. He spends most of the play lying desperately and poorly.

Vocally flustered, increasingly breathless. Psychologically: a man drowning in his own scheme, powered entirely by panic.

JEAN PERKINS Female | Open Ethnicity | 30’s-50’s. Henry's wife. Initially bewildered, then resistant, then increasingly limbered up due to alcohol until she’s gloriously unhinged. Her arc is one of the great comic journeys in the play. Starts buttoned-up and ends up cheerfully chaotic.

Vocal range goes from clipped domesticity to slurring abandon.

VIC JOHNSON Male | Open Ethnicity | 30’s–50’s Henry's oldest friend, who arrives for a birthday dinner and ends up embroiled in everything. Enthusiastic in the wrong direction. More hindrance than help. Boisterous, confident, slightly dim. Physically loud. Psychologically: a man who thinks he's helping.

BETTY JOHNSON Female | Open Ethnicity | 30’s–50’s Vic's wife. Quicker on the uptake than her husband, and increasingly taken with Henry's plan...and then with Henry! Sharp, flirtatious, pragmatic. A good foil for the mounting chaos around her.

BILL Male | Open Ethnicity | 30’s–50’s The taxi driver Henry calls to take them to the airport. Gets drawn into the disaster by proximity and ends up the unlikely hero of the ending. Working class, no-nonsense, unflappable on the surface. Simpler than everyone else.

DAVENPORT Male | Open Ethnicity | 40’s–50’s A plainclothes police officer. Arrives convinced he's caught Henry out for entirely the wrong reason, then pivots to blackmail when he sees an opportunity. Slippery, self-satisfied, venal. Vocally smooth. The kind of man who always thinks he's the cleverest person in the room.

SLATER Male | Open Ethnicity | 40’s–50’s The straight copper. Arrives to deliver terrible news about a body and stays far too long. Earnest, procedural, completely oblivious. A good comic foil to Davenport: where Davenport is slippery, Slater is plodding. Physically stolid. Psychologically: a man doing his job in completely the wrong house.

MR. BIG/PASSER-BY ("Mr Brerfcurse") Male | Dutch | Age flexible. The criminal whose money Henry accidentally took. Speaks almost no English. “Brerfcurse” being his best attempt at "briefcase." Arrives at the end with a gun. The physical threat that forces resolution. Minimal dialogue. Maximum menace. Comic largely by virtue of his linguistic helplessness.

Extracts will be provided at the audition for each role. There will be the opportunity to read for multiple roles. You may be asked to improvise either within the scene or afterwards. This will only be something for the audition though. Lines cannot be changed in the actual production.

Extracts from Samuel French copy of Funny Money.

Pg.36

From Henry entering

To Jean “that is a comfort, yes”

Pg.19

From Bill Steps in

To him getting pushed back out

Pg.29

From Bill storming in

To Henry “Well, the outlaws...”

Pg.23

From Betty’s entrance

To Jean “On a tube train”

Pg.68

From Beginning of Act 2

To Davenport “I wouldn’t miss it for the world”

Pg.119

From the top of the page

To pg120 when he finishes counting.