Surprise entrances. Mistaken identities. Enraged exits.

It’s easy to point out the tropes of a farce, but much more difficult to stage one. If an actor is in the wrong place for a prat fall, if a prop paint can isn’t onstage for a spit-take, if the set can’t weather the furious slamming of doors, a farce’s zany spell is broken.

Tom Width, the director of Swift Creek Mill Theatre’s new show “There Goes the Bride,” is intimately aware of this.

“My job is to organize the chaos. These shows are always incredibly chaotic,” says Width, who is also the theater’s longtime artistic director. “It’s really a dance, to keep everybody safe and to keep the laughs going.”

Penned by John Chapman and Ray Cooney, “There Goes the Bride” concerns an adman named Timothy Westerby whose daughter is about to get married.

“It’s a British farce about a neurotic father of the bride,” explains Robbie Winston, who plays Timothy Westerby in the show. “He’s trying to get this campaign for a bra company up and running. He’s also taking pills and he’s got some marital trouble.”

After Timothy bumps his head, he hallucinates that the flapper character he created for an ad campaign has come to life. Later, when he bumps his head a second time, he believes he’s a 1920s movie star auditioning for a part.

“I just see a man who is in desperate need of validation and some self-worth, and he’s trying to find that,” Winston says. “He’s not getting it in his marriage. He’s trying to get it in his work and trying to make this wedding a success.”

Winston admits that playing Timothy is a bit of a highwire act.

“It’s been difficult trying to understand where his mind is going,” he says. “It just flips constantly throughout the show. That’s been the hardest part for me. He can just switch midsentence.”

Local actress Valerie Chinn plays Polly Perkins, the flapper of Timothy’s daydreams.

“She’s truly vapid and doesn’t have any thoughts independent of herself because she is a hallucination,” says Chinn of her character. “Polly is bubbly and vivacious and adorable, and truly a manifestation of Timothy’s ego.”

Chinn has also had to adjust to the unique challenges of staging a farce.

“When you’re doing a farce, you can never slow down, because the minute you slow down people start to realize what’s going on,” Chinn says. “If you ruin the crazy timing, the scenario is kind of sad. It’s this man having a mental episode, and no one will help him.”

Staging Ray Cooney’s farces is becoming something of a tradition at Swift Creek. Last May, the theater company staged Cooney’s “Run for Your Wife.” It previously staged “There Goes the Bride” — which was adapted into a 1980 movie of the same name with Tom Smothers, Twiggy, Phil Silvers and Jim Backus — in 2008.

“Our audiences love them, and we love doing them,” Width says. “They’re just great fun, and they have no purpose besides being fun.”

Width says “There Goes the Bride” is an excellent diversion from the stressors of modern life.

“You need to forget your troubles nowadays,” Width says. “You want to just put the daily grind behind you and laugh at the stupidity of what’s onstage.”

“There Goes the Bride” runs May 17 to June 21 at Swift Creek Mill Theatre, 17401 Route 1, 23834. For more information visit swiftcreekmill.com