A Memorable Last Performance for Run For Your Wife

Article written by Derek L. Davis 

Audience members eager for the last performance of Run For Your Wife

              As eager patrons headed to their seats to see the last showing of VCSU Theater’s performance of Run for Your Wife, their ears were being treated to the sounds of The Beatles.  The Beatles were a sensation during the sixties and seventies, so it was of no wonder Theatre 320 had this British band playing to help create the scene for this British farce.  Run For Your Wife is a 1983 play written by the playwright Ray Cooney, which focuses on bigamy and how the main character’s double life inevitably gets the best of him.

                The main character, John Smith, is wonderfully and hilariously played by VCSU sophomore Burke Tagney.  In the play, he is married to both Mary Smith, who is played by freshman Anna Weisenburger, and to Barbara Smith, played by freshman Emily Waswick.  For three American college students, their British accents were convincing; it is hard to tell they have American accents!  The other characters were also very amusing to watch as well.  VCSU senior Nate Faust played Bobby Franklyn, a gay man living on the upstairs floor of Barbara Smith’s house.  It was hard to tell the orientation of this character based on voice, but using a flamboyant wardrobe helped out in understanding the essence of Faust’s character. 

                The wardrobe of the characters also helped make this play come alive.  Using brightly colored clothes such as Zack Lee’s leg pajamas and the dresses worn by both of the Mrs. Smith’s made it seem as though we weren’t watching a play from decades past, but rather as though we were living in the seventies. Though the clothes gave the play seventies appeal, the stage and the props also assisted with the feeling of being in the seventies.  The phones, which were used quite extensively and humorously in the play, were the popular spin-dial telephones used in the twentieth century, from the beginning of the play to the end of the play. While the characters were on the phone delivering line after line, it was not hard to notice how the furniture also created the feeling of being in the seventies.  The furniture used looks similarly to furniture that would be in the Brady household.

                The audience reacted very well to the play.  Considering the fact that Run For Your Wife is a farce, there were plenty of laughs throughout the play.  If it wasn’t a line delivered by Zack Lee, it was something Burke Tagney did with his character, or it would be a quip from Harley McLain, who played Detective Sergeant Porterhouse.  What really brought the audience into our tears of laughter was towards the end of the performance, when everything is revealed to both Mrs. Smiths. 

                The whole night brought laughter to each individual audience member.  It was a shame to see the play end, and after all was said and done and the characters stood by the exit to Theatre 320, I overheard Burke Tagney, rather jokingly, say, “I’m looking forward to the sequel!”