When last we encountered John Smith (Cary Wiger), the fast-talking, fast-moving London-area cabdriver happily married to women in two suburbs, it was in Ray Cooney's riotous farce called Run For Your Wife. That was one year ago in Derby Dinner Playhouse's gloriously entertaining presentation. Now the enterprising playhouse is revisiting with equally hilarious results Smith's bigamous little world, as it offers the regional premiere of Caught in the Net, Cooney's whiz-bang sequel. But it's 18 years later, and Smith has a son by one wife and a daughter by the other. And, to the horror of their panic-stricken dad, the cyberwise teens have come across each other on the Internet, surprised and intrigued by the coincidence of having a taxi-driving father called John Smith in such close proximity.
Once again, the fabulously funny J. R. Stuart is playing Stanley Gardner, Smith's best friend, confidant, and lodger for 18 years with Smith, wife Mary (Janet Essenpreis), and daughter Vicki (Jan Hooker) in Wimbledon. He and the expert Wiger make a fine comic pair as they plot, scheme, argue, and pile lie upon lie to get through their dilemma. Wiger's long, impassioned, and impossible-to-follow speech directing Stuart to carry out a plan of action is so impeccably delivered that the audience bursts into applause. Smith's vegetarian wife Barbara (Kelly Hackett) and their son Gavin (Brance Cornelius) live in Streatham. The plot hinges on Smith's frantic efforts with Stanley's bumbling help to keep Gavin and Vicki from meeting in person at one of the houses or at a tea shop.
Hilariously complicating matters is Stanley's ancient father, Dad, played in doddering, dirty-old-man fashion by the play's ingenious director, Jim Hesselman, repeating his success in directing last year's Cooney. You almost expect Ruth Buzzi of "Laugh-In" to come on stage at any moment and belt him with her handbag. Stanley is supposed to have gone to Clapham to pick up Dad for a beach holiday in Felixstowe, but Smith's travails have bollixed all that.
The double entendres fly fast and furiously in this classic bedroom farce. A telephone routine involving a heavy breather erupts periodically and never fails to have the crowd in stitches. And there's no mistaking what the cast has in mind when handling the beach toys Stanley got for Dad and himself. The flawless, dead-on timing and acting of Derby Dinner's ensemble make Caught in the Net a total pleasure--and not at all a guilty one. Whoever loves farce will be in seventh heaven with this one.
