Run for Your Wife

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

Everyone gets fifteen minutes of fame, or so they say, because everyone wants at least 15 minutes of fame, or so they say. Well, maybe not everyone. There’s at least one man who doesn’t, and gets it anyway, much to his chaotic chagrin.

Shannon Zimmerman as Barbara, Chris Bleau as John Smith and Kristin Fuhrmann Clark as Mary in Run for Your Wife. Photo by Dell Domnik

A John Smith lives with his wife, Mary in an apartment in Wimbledon, and a John Smith lives with his wife Barbara, in an apartment in Streatham.

The John Smith of Wimbledon would like everyone to believe there are two John Smiths, who just happen to be cab drivers. Isn’t that a strange coincidence?

Wade P. Wood directs Ray Cooney’s classic British farce Run For Your Wife at Miners Alley Playhouse in Golden. It has to be said up front, to miss this production, is to miss a laugh of a lifetime. It is wonderfully staged with a cast of new and experienced actors who understand comedic timing, who all can wear a funny line with a straight face, who can romp through the hilarity without pointing to the comedy to say “laugh, this is funny,” and who all can play it through from beginning to end as though it were a serious statement about love and marriage. The result, a sidesplitting, strident confusion of identity, lies, cover-ups, surprises, hidden agendas, and laugh after laugh after laugh.

The truth is, there is only one John Smith, delectably played by Chris Bleau, who is indeed a cab driver, and has, up to this point, successfully managed two household and two wives one in Wimbledon and one in Streatham. During a late night shift he spies a couple of hoodlums mugging an elderly woman. John comes to her rescue. She thinks he is part of the tirade and hits him over the head with her purse. He lands in the hospital.

At 9:00 AM, Mary is frantically reporting her missing husband to the police since he was expected home shortly after midnight. Kristin Fuhrmann Clark wears Mary’s frantic demeanor with rightfully conceived hysteria. At the same time Barbara calls the police because she expected her husband home at 7:30 AM. Shannon Zimmerman takes Barbara for an upside down roller coaster ride with honest confusion.

Daniel Lowenstein designed an appropriate set serving as both apartments sporting no confusion whatsoever as to where they are. Although Act I features Mary’s and Act II features Barbara’s, there are times in the play both are at home, on stage, sharing the same space.

When Detective Sergeant Troughton, played straight faced by Brian Murray, escorts John to Mary’s still in a daze, he begins to realize the predicament he is in. Mary wants him to go straight to bed. He must somehow get word to Barbara. The Detective is already confused since the hospital has his address in Streatham. The chaos begins to tumble, as does a drier with delicate wash and wear.

Stanley Garner, a calm casual loose as a goose neighbor has the flat above John and Mary’s. John Rael takes on Stanley as though he owns him. He does. Remember this name. Rael just graduated from UNC in acting and philosophy. This is his first production. He wears the legs of a natural comedienne from his long black hair, to crinkled brow, to the tips of his toes. He has a bright future ahead of him.

In timed frustration, John reveals his plight to Stanley who innocently becomes involved in the ramifications of the bouncing off the wall ball.

From there, its calamity upon calamity with honest laughs and honest humor that doesn’t quit.

Pete Nelson flies high wide and handsome as Detective Sergeant Porterhouse who responds to Barbara’s call in Streatham. This is a role Nelson can really get his teeth into from his “detectiveness” to apron strings.

Terry Herron sets the stage on fire as the happy but very gay upstairs neighbor of Barbara’s who makes himself welcome at the least opportune moment snuggling his way into the scene as though he belonged there. He’s stunning, even when he’s covered in red paint.

Cooney’s brilliant script flashes with double innuendos constantly lighting up the giggle button. This cast found the combination to the magic zipper to climb inside the script gaining a detailed view of the problematic story from the inside out. They emerged on stage full force of chemistry, honesty, wearing their characters skintight.

Miss this show, and you’ll wish you hadn’t. It’s going to be the talk of the town long after Mary and Barbara recover enough to bop John where he needs bopping most.