‘Run For Your Wife’ Provides Big Laughs

Theater Review

Ever since I saw ‘No Sex Please, We’re British’ on London’s West End, I’ve loved British farce with its fast-paced physical comedy. Ray Cooney’s ‘Run for Your Wife,’ now at the Morgan-Wixson Theater in Santa Monica, handily continues in that tradition.   The story revolves around an ordinary Englishman, taxicab driver John Smith, who gets hit in the head while attempting to stop a mugging. When Smith is brought home from the hospital by a detective, the audience discovers that Smith is anything but ordinary: he’s a polygamist who has maintained two households, one in Wimbledon, the other a few minutes away in Streatham. Complications and cases of mistaken identity ensue as Smith tries to keep his wives from finding out about each other.   The production is a well-built comedic train running down the track, with no stops until curtain call.   The cast works well together and has great chemistry. Michael Silva, as Smith, is perfectly ‘ordinary,’ but his facial expressions capture the frantic quality of a man about to be trapped.   As wives Barbara and Mary, Laura Buckles and Rebekah Voss hold the show together. They deftly handle physical comedy, which comes in handy in the second act.   Tristan Wright as upstairs neighbor Stanley displays energy, enthusiasm and deflation as he goes through the different charades with humorous results. Justin Wade, as a transvestite dress designer, towers over his neighbors with his high heels. His flamboyant entrances or exits are all that is needed to elicit laughs.   The two detectives, played by Morgan Krantz and Paul Guay, are a comical contrast in character types. Guay, who co-wrote the Jim Carrey film ‘Liar, Liar,’ plays the henpecked husband to perfection. Krantz’s tightly-wound detective takes more of a ‘Law and Order’ approach.   The production is a gem, and a large share of the credit goes to director Tina Polzin, who keeps the play moving at a breakneck pace, with exceptional blocking, humorous poses and well-timed mugging from the actors.   Afterwards, an audience member praised the show, saying ‘Now, that was a kick!’ and his description was apt. This comedy is one of the funniest I’ve seen on stage in years.    ‘Run for Your Wife’ plays Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through February 13 at the Morgan-Wixson, 2627 Pico Blvd. Call: (310) 828-7519 or visit: www.morgan-wixson.org or www.johnsmithcheats.com.