Money for Nothing

Comedy

Director: Andrus Vaarik
Author: Michael Cooney
Translator: Hannes Villemson
Set designer: Andrus Jõhvik
Costume designer: Marta Vaarik
Lighting designer: Karmen Tellisaar
Musical designer: Reigo Ahven

Cast: Nils Mattias Steinberg, Triin Brigitta Heidov, Mauri Liiv, Priit Loog, Enn Keerd, Astra Irene Susi, Kleer Maibaum, Andrus Vaarik, Carmen Mikiver, Kati Ong

For two years, unemployed homeowner Eric Swan has been defrauding the social services department by claiming all kinds of benefits in the names of fictitious tenants. As the daily flood of cheques, slips and forms for family, child, single-parent, housing, maternity, large-family and widows’ benefits; old-age and disability pensions; carers’ and holiday allowances; and Christmas and workplace-accident compensation—and his army of imaginary people—begins to overwhelm him, Eric decides to put an end to the fraud. But just then, a social services officer turns up needing the signature of a tenant who does not exist.

An ordinary October morning at number 344 Chilton Road, in rainy east London, turns into a whirlwind of mistaken identities, costume changes, misunderstandings and ever more outrageous lies.

In the old days, it was quite common for actors who had made their name in Pärnu to move on to shine on the stages of the capital, and it was not unusual for capital-city stars to work for a while in the resort town’s theatre. In fact, this still happens today, but the old custom of staging the same plays in every theatre has almost completely disappeared. All the more reason to celebrate that, for Endla Teater’s 115th anniversary, Andrus Vaarik—who came to Pärnu a few years ago to make his mark—has restaged here, in a new form, the most successful comedy of his directing career to date.