Farces written by British playwright Ray Cooney have their own particular appeal: they’re bawdy without being crass and incorporate clever twists without being impossibly complicated. They’re certainly popular in the United Kingdom: he’s had 17 plays produced in London’s West End and his 1983 smash “Run For Your Wife” ran there for a record nine years.
Cooney’s work has also always found a comfortable home at Swift Creek Mill Theatre. “We’ve done eight or nine of his shows over the years,” says artistic director Tom Width. “We’ve had good success with [his] lighthearted comedies in the summertime; it’s the season for relaxing and having a laugh.”
The Mill’s upcoming production of “Run For Your Wife” is the second time Width has directed Cooney’s biggest hit: the company first produced the show 20 years ago. Coincidentally, the star of this production first performed at the Mill in a different Cooney comedy even further back.
“The first show I did there was 21, 22 years ago,” remembers Jeffrey Meisner. “It was a Ray Cooney farce called “Out of Order.” It was very similar, with a lot of mistaken identities. When I saw the audition notice [for ‘Wife’], I thought, ‘My goodness, it’s got me written all over it.’”
Meisner is a Theatre VCU graduate and appeared regularly on local stages for years. But jobs in the restaurant business interfered with his ability to perform on nights and weekends. His last professional acting gig was in the Mill’s production of “Sleuth” in 2010.
“I know in my heart of hearts that [acting] is something I’m supposed to be doing,” Meisner says. “I just haven’t had the opportunity to do it or the time. As I’ve gotten older I’ve realized that, if I don’t make the time, I’m going to run out of it.”
In “Wife,” Meisner plays John Smith, a London taxi driver who has managed to marry two women and successfully maintain two distinct households without one finding out about the other. After a mugging lands Smith in the hospital, he finds his precariously balanced life spinning out of control.
While many farces feature a symphony of slamming doors, “Wife” is staged around a more fascinating theatrical conceit: The two apartments Smith maintains are depicted on the same set.
“I think that’s one of the things that really put this show and Cooney on the map,” says Width. “He establishes it beautifully right off the bat: it’s two households, miles apart, that occupy the same space at the same time.
“So often there’s a scene between two or three people in one apartment and a character from the other apartment just comes walking through. [Cooney] sets it up perfectly and, as it unwinds, it holds up without much confusion.”
The unique staging requires actors to take extra measures to maintain consistency. “I have lines in my script highlighted differently,” says Meisner. “So I know which apartment – and which wife – they refer to.”
“Every so often we have to say to the actors, ‘Stop looking at her. She’s not in your apartment; she’s at the other house,’” says Width.
Aspects of the play force it to be staged as a period piece in early 1980s London. “You couldn’t really update it,” says Meisner. “If you moved it forward, something like cell phones would get in the way of the ridiculousness of it. When a character says, ‘Why didn’t you call me,’ today you have a phone in your pocket so you have no excuse.”
The play also includes plenty of Cooney’s suggestive humor. “It’s hugely politically incorrect, as most of these farces are,” says Width. “But it’s all double entendre so we don’t have to take the blame for getting it the dirty way. You can look at the audience and say, ‘Oh you filthy minds!’”
“Run For Your Wife” runs from May 18 through June 15 at Swift Creek Mill Theatre, 17401 Route 1 in South Chesterfield. Tickets and information available at https://www.swiftcreekmill.com/.
