Ray Cooney, now in his 80s, is an English playwright and actor, his biggest success was ‘Run for Your Wife’ which ran for nine years in London’s West End, becoming London’s longest-running comedy. This was presented by Wanneroo’s Limelight Theatre in August this year.

The Rockingham Theatre Company at ‘The Castle’, Rockingham Theatre, 8 Attwood Way in Rockingham, is presenting this wild two-hour madcap comedy (rather than a farce) on Friday and Saturday evenings at 8.00 pm. The season runs until 3^rd December at 8.00 pm. there is also one matinée on Sunday 27^th November at 2.00 pm

The scene is the sitting room cum dining area in the Harper’s home in Woking. This is a very well designed (David Heckingbottom) and constructed set (male cast with Rob Walker, Danny Joyce), complete with three doors, a window, staircase, TV and ‘working’ gas fire. The furnishings are excellent (Lorraine Howes) and the room really appears lived in – very well done. As the script reminds us, there are ‘nice curtains and rugs’. The wild costumes are by Kerry Tarbuck.

Jackie Hiscox’s lighting was carefully planned and the soundscape well recorded and operated on cue.

        Linda Harper (Kirstie Francis) who has always been easy-going and enjoying the good life, now confides to her neighbour and best friend, Betty (Larraine Heckingbottom) that she has only three years before she will be 40! Already she is feeling that the better side of life is passing her by. Her son Leonard (Callon Leam) is a typical teenager, enjoying life, doing as little as possible and not even noticing she is in the house. Then there is Linda’s loving father in law, Bernard (Ron Gent), senile and still living out his war service in the Air Force.

      Linda’s husband, George (David Heckingbottom) has been a good father to her son, a great family breadwinner, but he is boring with a capital ‘B’. They have been married 17 years and their love life is now down to birthdays and Christmas, if she is lucky.

      At one in the morning, Linda and George stagger home from a business, fancy dress party at the Town Hall. They are closely followed by Betty’s husband, Roger (Peter Scarrott), who is hoping to scrounge a few more free drinks before going home. When Linda goes up to bed, Roger reveals to George that he has had a vasectomy, and that his sex drive has since increased beyond his wildest dreams. Roger confides he now has extracurricular interests on a Monday and Wednesday night. Roger thoroughly recommends that George gets a ‘snip’ too – it will make a new man of him.

       Will George take Roger’s advice, or does Linda have ideas of her own?

This play was written in about 30 years ago, and is now showing a little bit of age. Cooney’s sole efforts were his better scripts, but this comedy has a great plot and plenty of laughs. David Heckingbottom and Kirstie Francis had tremendous chemistry, with Kirstie playing the randy but ignored wife, and David as the boring, and at times ‘disabled’ husband. Both actors not only had perfect comedic, verbal timing, but their hilarious body language doubled the humour.

After years of acting and presenting farces, director Sue Walker ably assisted by Larraine Heckingbottom, have milked every ounce of comedy from the show. All of the actors have literally thrown themselves boldly – and daringly – into the wild and ridiculous situations. Good supporting cast.

Young Callon Leam has come on leaps and bounds since his first show. He has certainly grasped the skills of comedy delivery. A few more years and a new generation of younger comic actors will be required, and he is in line.

At the ‘Castle’, you can always be sure of a warm welcome and a professional show.

Presented by the Wanneroo Repertory Inc., this two and a quarter hour, fast moving, hilarious show can be seen at the Limelight Theatre, Civic Drive in Wanneroo each Thursday, Friday and Saturday night at 8.00 until Saturday 13^th August.

The action takes place about 1988, in two venues, a maisonette in Wimbledon and another flat in Streatham. Two adjoining suburbs in south London.

The stage is divided in half, one side a plush, well-furnished apartment – Streatham; the other side of the stage is a cottage-style flat in Wimbledon, with exposed brickwork and large patterned graphic wallpaper. Great design by Robert Vincent and Carol Keppler. The set was built by the cast and techs – Wally Fry, Zach Ozolins, Grace and Kim Elford.

The settees and furnishings, however, belong to both flats so at times the same sofa could have a person from each flat, speaking to each other by ‘phone – a tricky setup, but it worked beautifully.

Some great props gathered by Colleen Hopkins, Andrew Govey and The Vincents.

As well as being judged on the immediately visible set, a quality design like this, has that extra touch. When the kitchen door opened, there was a light on – not just a black void – and the kitchen dresser, with crockery was visible through the doorway.

        The curtains open to the tune of ‘Love and Marriage’, revealing two women still in their night attire, looking anxiously out of their lounge windows. Then, in unison they telephone the police. One woman Mary Smith (Christine Smith) calls the Wimbledon Police Station, the other Barbara Smith (Susannah Bell), Streatham, both with the same story, their husband, John Smith is missing.

        With thick bandaging on his head and slight concussion, London cabbie owner, John Smith (Gordon Park) is helped into his Wimbledon home by a detective, D S Troughton (R. J. Smolders). John’s wife, Mary is so relieved to have her husband back, especially on hearing he was the hero of a mugging attack. As the group is chatting, into the flat wanders John’s best friend, Stanley Gardner (Andrew Govey), a yob with a thick mullet haircut who lives in the upstairs flat. Before leaving, the detective asks if he could clear up a puzzle, the hospital had two addresses for John – why was that?

        Later, whilst Mary is making a cup of tea, John confides in Stanley that he is a bigamist, with two flats and two wives. He is sharing his time between them, and at present, according to his precisely planned diary, he is actually in the wrong home. He should be in Streatham and not Wimbledon.

        As John is leaving for his other home, a newspaper reporter (Tom Melanko) arrives. If John’s photo should hit the press, his duplicity will be exposed. Panic stricken, John arrives at his other home, only to find that his second wife, Barbara, is describing him to her local detective, D S Porterhouse (Peter Boylen). Barbara’s new, overtly gay, upstairs neighbour, Bobby (Chris McCafferty) calls to introduce himself.

       Even with the help of Stanley, how much longer can John fool his two wives, and those around him?

Susan Vincent is an accomplished actress, as well as an experienced and admired director, with every theatre skill possible acquired over her lifetime in the theatre. She has also had experience in broadcasting. Here she directs the perfect troupe in a brilliant farce.

The cast is divided into three groups, the panicking John and Stanley who look like star fish as their arms and legs flail around. Then there are the two confused and emotionally upset wives and the two detectives who are the straight men – Bobby is definitely not a straight man.

Gordon, who never does eye contact when he is acting, uses it to his advantage when he blankly looks around, with fear in his eyes, as he thinks up the next mad excuse. Andrew has wonderful chemistry with Gordon as they try to fool the police and the two wives. The girls were delightful, scantily clad (costumes Joyce Gilbert) so sexy without being tasteless. Susannah was the hard, angry wife and poor Christine as the heartbroken, screaming spouse, devastated by the situation. The timing was absolutely perfect, the delivery of every double-entendre went without a hitch. The cast nailed it.

Limelight is accustomed to full houses, but this show was a sell-out almost instantly.

One of the best farces that I have seen.