Westminster Community Theater’s latest production, Ray Cooney’s Caught in the Net, is a masterpiece in the British farce genre, and enthusiastic audiences are finding it to be one of the most outrageously funny shows of the season.
Although this story stands entirely on its own, it is the sequel to the highly successful play, Run for Your Wife, a tale about a London cabbie with two wives – one in Wimbledon and the other in Streatham.
Westminster Community Theater’s latest production, Ray Cooney’s Caught in the Net, is a masterpiece in the British farce genre, and enthusiastic audiences are finding it to be one of the most outrageously funny shows of the season.
Although this story stands entirely on its own, it is the sequel to the highly successful play, Run for Your Wife, a tale about a London cabbie with two wives – one in Wimbledon and the other in Streatham.
Caught in the Net spins off from there, where we find our taxi-driving two-timer, John Smith (Scott T. Finn), juggling two households and two wives, Mary (Angela Rice), and Barbara (Maria O’Connor); but after 18 years, he is also the harried father of two very computer-savvy teenagers.
Of course, John’s son, Gavin (Tyler Hill) lives in one of John’s households, with his mum, Barbara, while daughter Vicki (Jacqueline Fancher) resides with her mum, Mary, in the other.
As modern technology would have it, Gavin and Vicki meet on the Internet, and as young love blossoms, the two potential lovebirds decide that they must meet in person. Gavin and Vicki are obviously enthralled with how much they have in common, particularly the uncanny coincidence that they both have fathers with the same name and age who are London cab drivers.
n a modest but brilliant set design by Chris Coleman, both households are equally played on one set, and from the rapid fire non-stop whirlwind starting point, audiences are instantaneously privy to what shenanigans charming Johnny have been up to all these years.
Keeping the kids apart becomes John’s critical attempt at avoiding a colossal head-on collision – and he’s frightfully aware that this calamity could be the car crash he has blindly avoided all these years.
Rallying help from his boarder and best friend, Stanley Gardner (Greg Stokes), John enlists Stanley’s aid in holding down the fort in one household while John, in a staggering effort to keep a presence in each household, keeps his double life secret, and keeps his teenagers apart, frantically racing from one house at one end of town to the other and back again.
As John’s accomplice, Stanley, is forced to stay on his toes and in his frenzied state, he invents wild on-the-spot stratagems as he finds himself falling deeper and deeper into a web of absurdity, and his goofy scuba moves? Stanley brings1960s dance moves back in a big way!
And then there is his elderly Dad (Jim Perham), who has reached the age of “getting away with saying whatever he wants” raising the funny shtick even higher as the slightly daft old man nearly lets the cat out of the bag time and time again.
In an attempt to distract dear old dad, Stanley knocks Dad’s wooden cane out from under him. And, in classical Pavlov fashion, Dad begins tripping himself up on cue!
Caught in the Net is a swift high-speed adventure where the audience dares not to catch its breath, but there is no problem keeping up. With phones ringing, doors locking, and “nose-growing” stories unraveling, surrendering to the silliness is a breeze.
Director Chris Coleman’s obvious attempt at making sure that everyone has a good time has paid off as the theater echoes with uncontrollable laughter at this delightfully entertaining comedy.
Scott T. Finn as John and Greg Stokes as Stanley make an exceptional duo as the couple of close chums who’ve obviously got each other’s backs, and this splendid cast provides solid performances.
Caught in the Net
Westminster Community Theater
7272 Maple Street
Westminster
714-893-8626
Runs through March 23
