Transvestites, nuns and farmers … Oh, my!
Run for Your Wife proves polygamy can be funnier than you thin
By Stacey Wiebe 09/07/2006
If you never thought the very serious subject of polygamy could inspire serious belly laughter, think again — because the Ojai Art Center Theater’s Run for Your Wife isn’t about taking a magnifying glass to the moral ambiguity involved in stringing two wives along at once.
Instead, farce-master Ray Cooney’s (author of It Runs in the Family and Funny Money, among others) story of a British taxi driver with two wives who live not five minutes from each other is sheer farce at its nonsensical, clever best.
The curtain closes before John Smith (Jay Wisell), the skinny, highly strung, likable polygamist with more on his plate than he could ever chew, ultimately has to face his two brides, Mary Smith (Vivien Latham) and Barbara Smith (Lorelei Sadie Hawkins). The aftermath of the discovery that they’re sharing a husband is thankfully left to the imagination. Instead, the audience is treated to a somewhat Shakespearean series of false identities and complex lies that are cranked up several notches for hilarious consumption by modern audiences.
As the play opens, both wives pace worriedly across the ingenious set, which essentially splices the living rooms of the two different homes occupied by John’s two wives. Though they cross paths frequently, pacing as they try to determine the whereabouts of John — who, unbeknownst to them, has performed an act of heroism and has been injured in the process — it is always clear they are not in the same house. The staging is excellent and the direction by Buddy Wilds is superb.
John’s tightly scheduled life begins to unravel after he arrives at his home with Mary, where he must try to avoid giving his account of the incident to a policeman and being photographed as a hero by a newspaper reporter. Things only get more complicated when he admits to Stanley Gardner (amazing show-stealer Doug Friedlander), the man who lives upstairs from him and Mary, that he has two wives and must do whatever he must not to get caught.
When Stanley becomes John’s accomplice, the ball really gets rolling. The object of the insane game is to convince two detectives, each one contacted by a different wife when John was missing, that there’s nothing amiss — even though two John Smiths with two different addresses checked in at the same hospital with identical head injuries.
As Detective Sergeant Porterhouse, Ron Rowe is disarmingly sweet and rather clueless as the helpful detective whose nickname, to hilarious effect, is “Pussy.” As Detective Sergeant Troughton, Vincent Ugolini isn’t quite as gullible, but similarly and delightfully helps to move the action along.
Though the entire cast is hilarious, Friedlander (who appeared early this year in the Elite Theatre drama, The Gin Game), with his exasperated, bulging eyes and breathless rasp, is an absolute comedic genius. The man can say it all with nary a glance, and the frequent guffaws of the opening-night audience proved it.
As the play reaches ever-growing heights of hilarity, Stanley is believed to be — by one character or another at one time or another — John Smith, a farmer and John Smith’s lover. Not to be outdone, the other main characters, who, with the exception of John and Stanley, have no idea that they’re part of this insane game of false identities, are given just as farcical a treatment: Mary is believed to be a nun and Stanley’s (as John Smith) wife; Barbara is believed to be a transvestite named Lofty, as well as John’s maid; Porterhouse is believed to be homosexual and John is believed to be Stanley’s secret lover. You get the picture.
As John, Wisell is a semi-bad guy you can almost feel sorry for. After all, it was his inability to tell Barbara that he was already married that got him into this mess in the first place. He and Friedlander make a superb team that is able to milk the fantastically farcical script for all it’s worth.
With great comedic timing and talent in physical comedy, Latham is an amazing Mary, who seems to be the smartest character in the whole play. Her interactions with Stanley, who seemingly was driving her nuts before the curtain opened, are some of the best moments in the show.
Hawkins makes a sweet Barbara, who’s a more permissive and unquestioning wife, and Nelson Fox as John and Barbara’s upstairs neighbor, Bobby Franklyn, adds a bizarre touch that ups the ante even more.
Because the play is set in England, the now-you-hear-it-now-you-don’t British accents of most of the cast are a bit distracting, but the show’s so good it’s easily overlooked. Save for Latham and Hawkins (who are originally from England and, not surprisingly, have that whole accent thing down pat), the cast employs British accents intermittently. But, again, it’s not a big deal.
With a play and a cast this strong, Ojai Art Center Theater proves you don’t need to be a professional theater company to inspire sidesplitting laughs.
DIGG | del.icio.us | REDDIT