A sequel to the well-known play Run For Your Wife is being staged by local community group Limelight Theatre.
The original play deals with a cab driver who is a bigamist. He keeps two families in different parts of London and maintains a tight schedule to manage them both.
The original play enjoyed a nine year run in London and featured Richard Briers and Bernard Cribbins in the lead. In 2001 the author Ray Cooney wrote a sequel to the farce.
Directed by 50-year theatre veteran Susan Vincent, Caught in the Net is set 18 years later with taxi driver John Smith still a bigamist.
He still keeps his two families in different parts of London, both happy and blissfully unaware of each other.
But his teenage children – a girl from one family and a boy from the other – have met on the internet and are keen to meet, given they have so much in common including their fathers having the same name, age and occupation.
When John realises his children are about to encounter each other, he frantically tries to keep them apart aided and abetted by his lodger Stanley. Mayhem ensues as the situation spirals out of control and John juggles the truth more and more outrageously.
Director Susan Vincent says timing is essential when performing Conney’s work.
“Caught in the Net is extremely fast-paced, so timing is everything,” Vincent said.
“The cast have to be spot-on with delivering their lines and getting on and off stage – the play doesn’t have any pauses, it just keeps moving.
Vincent previously directed a season of Run for Your Wife at Limelight Theatre in 2016 and said she was eager to stage the sequel because of the popularity of that production. Actor Gordon Park who portrayed John Smith in the 2016 production returns to play the lead once again.
“When I directed Run For Your Wife at Limelight Theatre in 2016 it was extremely popular, so I decided to direct the sequel because it continues the story and has a brilliant ending,” Vincent said.
Cooney is the master of farcical comedy and has several plays in his repertoire including Charlie Girl, Move Over Mrs Markham, Wife Begins at Forty, Out of Order and Not Now, Darling.
His plays has been translated into more than 40 languages. Run for Your Wife and Caught in the Net have both found success in Korea.
Caught in the Net plays at 8pm May 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11 and 12 with a 2pm matinee May 6. Tickets are available from Limelight Theatre. Limelight Theatre is located on Civic Drive, Wanneroo.
OIP Staff
