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RUN FOR YOUR WIFE! by Ray Cooney 4 November to 2 December 1995 Directed by Simone de Haas Cast List Review Run For Your Wife! Amanda Ball - Rave - 22 November 1995 Mixed Company is one of several non-funded, profit-share companies which have added considerable diversity to Brisbane's increasingly healthy theatre scene. The company was formed in 1994 with the specific intention of performing comedy well, and with the current production of Run For Your Wife! they have achieved just that. English playwright Ray Cooney's light-hearted farce is the longest running play on London's West End, and the production has toured Australia several times. It was with some trepidation, therefore, that I visited the Cement Box, wondering what this new company would make of Cooney's fast and furious script. I need not have worried. Director Simone de Haas has assembled a fine cast, all of whom seem thoroughly comfortable with their respective roles, and the action hurtles along at a breathless pace for the majority of the evening. Most significantly, the large and appreciative audience laugh their heads off - which is, after all, the bottom line for a good comedy. At the centre of the comic maelstrom is John Smith (Keith Daly), a mild-mannered London cabbie who leads a hectic double life. By means of a finely balanced schedule and a lot of fast talking, John is happily married to two women, the hot-tempered Barbara (Alison Kerr) and the anxiety prone Mary (Dale Murison). John manages to keep his two wives unaware until he is involved in a slight accident, and the all-important schedule goes out the window. To make matters worse both women have contacted the police about his whereabouts! To save the situation, the frantic cabbie involves his old friend Stanley (Brad Ashwood) in an ever more complex web of tall stories and improbable explanations. The laughs come thick and fast as the highly suspicious Dt Sergeant Troughton (John Grey) closes in on what he thinks is a nest of vice and corruption (namely Barbara's flat), where he confronts the kindly and distinctly gullible Dt Sergeant Porterhouse (a charming performance by Hugh Buckham). After the equally suspicious Mary arrives, hot on the heels of Barbara's highly camp neighbour Bobby (Ashley Wilkie) it seems that John's cover may be blown for good. There are no weak links among de Haas' uniformly excellent cast, although both Daly and Ashwood deserve full credit for their handling of the pivotal central roles. Grey and Buckham are entirely credible as the earnest enforcers of the law and, as the much abused wives, Kerr and Murison do a fine line in hysteria. While modern sensibilities may find the humour of Run For Your Wife! hopelessly incorrect, those who enjoy farce will find plenty to laugh at in the production. |
