CAUGHT IN THE NET: Cooney, Touring

CAUGHT IN THE NET: Ray Cooney
Runs: 2h 20m, one interval
Belgrade till 2 November and touring
Touring info: www.kenwright.com (site currently under construction)

Review: Rod Dungate, Belgrade, 29 October 2002

Traditional farce, hale and hearty, Christopher Beeny and Russ Abbot make a fine farce team.
Highly energetic, lots of doors and slap-bang in the tradition of English farce. Ingenious plotting, double entendres and sex nearly raising its pretty head. In many ways it's as reassuring as McGill seaside postcards (Douglas Heap's set is like a brightly coloured cartoon), titillating but at the end of the day affirming the moral status quo. Well, in this case not quite the status quo there are a couple of fast neat twists as the play closes.

Cooney's plotting is farce-supreme. It starts with a character, a fault and an accident. For NET it's a man with two wives and families and a son and daughter (different mothers) who meet virtually and decide to meet in reality. The man John Smith must stop this at all costs. Plotting logically, step by step, Cooney takes us at breath-taking and giddying speed into ever more ridiculous situations, skilfully never giving us a moment to get our bearings. The craziness goes on getting wound up tighter and tighter.

Men falling off roofs, thermal sheets, an elderly father losing his memory (but not his libido) and Russ Abbot in a bath towel set off with a rather fetching handbag. Traditional stuff (perhaps with the odd face-lift) but hale and hearty and therein lies its charm and delight.

Christopher Beeny (bigamous husband, John Smith) is a fire-squib of an engine, relentlessly driving the play forward. Always likeable, he has a manic quality at one with the farcical madness.

Russ Abbot is a perfect balance to this as the luckless lodger, Stanley. Abbot's style is quieter (which surprised me) and he is a magic farceur. Each comic line hits home with precision as the character is caught in a net of horrors none of his own making.

Carolyn Lyster and Anita Graham create a fine team of wives, engagingly warm in their different ways. William Harry's Gavin (John Smith's son) is a charming chirpy-chappie of a youth though I wish he didn't sound quite so much like a character out of Harry Enfield. It's clear William Harry has the talent to be much more creative.

Gavin Smith: William Harry
Vicki Smith: Sophie Cooper
Barbara Smith: Anita Graham
Mary Smith: Carolyn Lyster
John Smith: Christopher Beeny
Stanley Gardner: Russ Abbot
Dad: Henry McGee

Director: Ray Cooney
Designer: Douglas Heap
Lighting: Douglas Kuhrt

2002-10-30 11:11:52