MARY SMITH DESCRIBES her husband as an ordinary man--brown hair, brown eyes, average height and a little cuddly. Barbara Smith describes her husband the same way, right down to the cuddly part. Both are married to London cab drivers.
Mary's husband works the late shift and is always home by midnight. Barbara's husband works the early shift and is always home by 8 a.m.
John Smith is an ordinary London cabbie with a very hectic schedule. When he's not working, he's with Mary. When he's not working and not with Mary, he's with Barbara. He's not sure how it happened. It seems shortly after he married Mary, he met Barbara. He didn't plan to marry her, but she asked and he didn't want to hurt her feelings.
Mary and John Smith live exactly 4 and 1/2 minutes from Barbara and John Smith. John successfully balances both lives and both wives until he receives a bop on the head one day while trying to break up a mugging, which sends him to the hospital and begins to unravel his tightly wound schedule.
While suffering from his injuries, he gives the policeman one address and the hospital another. To make matters worse, both wives become worried when he breaks his predictable timetable, and contact the local police to report him missing.
Such is the setup for Ray Cooney's British farce Run for your Wife, now playing at Serendipity Playhouse. I groaned when I first heard the premise. A play about two women, each waiting patiently and loyally by the window for her man to come home, both too dumb to figure out what's really going on. And of course there would be the requisite close calls and misunderstandings. On top of that, I'd have to decipher what they were actually saying through those English accents. How funny could this be?
The answer: damn funny.
Cooney's fast and playful script is chock-full of sharp, funny lines and the Serendipity cast delivers them with perfect comedic timing. Director Paul B. Gilbert keeps the actors moving and talking at breakneck speed. Gilbert and his wife, Debby, are also responsible for a handy scene design that allows both Smith residences to share the same space at the same time.
David Walker plays cuddly-but-panicked John Smith with energetic gusto from beginning to end. Shari Goddard is excellent in the role of Barbara Smith, and Serendipity owner and producer, Maggie Grant does a fine job as Mary Smith.
But the two upstairs neighbors (one from each residence), Stanley Garner and Bobby Franklyn, who get tangled in the action simply by being there, steal the show. Stanley, hilariously portrayed by Mike Rauseo, is your average annoying, unemployed neighbor always dropping by in his bathrobe for no apparent reason. Rauseo approaches his character with a manic frenzy that teeters on the edge of going overboard, but pulls back enough to stay believable and keep us laughing.
Bobby, a gay man who shares a flat with his lover, Cyril, and makes women's frocks when he's not painting the apartment fire-engine red, is engagingly played by Robert Ulsrud. Ulsrud is charm mixed with sharp-tongued sarcasm, and he can get a laugh merely by walking across the stage.
Michael Woodson and Paul Elia, who both play police detectives, round out the cast with strong, funny performances.
The play offers nothing more than a lot of laughs. There is no lesson to be learned here, no wisdom to be gained, no message to be sought. It requires no prerequisites beyond a sense of humor. Run for your Wife is simply a good time. (Side note: the Serendipity Playhouse, in the old Gaslight Theatre space, is a charming theatre with comfortable seats and plenty of leg room.)
Serendipity Playhouse's production of Run for your Wife continues with performances Wednesday through Sunday through May 6. Serendipity Playhouse is located at 7000 E. Tanque Verde Road on the southwest corner of Tanque Verde and Sabino Canyon. Tickets are $12 to $15, with discounts for seniors, students, and military. For show times and reservations call 751-4445.
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