Performance Review: Run For Your Wife

By Kayley Erlandson

The saying “there are two sides to every story” can apply to Valley City State University’s most recent production, Run For Your Wife, a British farce by Ray Cooney about a man living a double life.  Even the set took on a dual personality, split right down the middle of two very different living rooms only a four and a half minutes drive away from each other.  The play centers around John Smith, a taxi driver who is married to two different women…at the same time.  He does a good job of giving equal attention to both oblivious wives until the day he spontaneously performs an act of kindness that careens his carefully tended double life out of control.  With the help of his friend, Stanley, John concocts lies upon lies to cover up his original fib, creating a very tangled web indeed, but not without plenty of dry British humor along the way.  

The cast includes Nate Faust, Tiffany Ferch, Zack Lee, Lindsay Lagodinski, Burke Tagney, Emily Waswick, Anna Weisenburger, and Valley City resident Harley McLain.  

The main leads gave strong performances and did a good job of keeping their British accents throughout the play, which lasted a little over an hour and a half.  On the day before opening night, there were only a couple of hiccups throughout the play, which otherwise ran smoothly.

As far as the look of the play goes, the costumes are a lot of fun.  Most plays don’t center around the specific 60’s and 70’s era, so it was a nice change of pace to see plaid pants, go-go boots, and paisley bathrobes instead of 1930’s clothes or current get-up.  The sets also reflected the decade the play transported the audience to.  One house had shaggy green carpet, beads hanging from the doorway, and a lava lamp, while both houses had rotary phones, which are key to the plot. I don’t believe the play would have gone like it had if Caller ID had been invented if the play had been set to our current year.

 I really liked the half-and-half set that broke right down the middle.  Besides making it more interesting to look at, it also symbolized the split life of John Smith.  The lighting also helped the audience to know where it should direct its attention to.  The play opens with the entire stage lit up, but occasionally changes to one “house” if the other is currently unoccupied.

The music helps set the tone for the decade and even the location, with the music including “Help!” by the Beatles, the popular band that originated in Britain before migrating to the States.

The play was very cleverly written and I appreciate the dry British humor perhaps more than other Americans, many of whom like their jokes big, loud, and obvious.  Run For Your Wife is a nice change of pace and the audience sitting in on the final practice I attended enjoyed it.

The play is showing October 14-16 at 7:30 pm with a matinee on the 16^th at 2 pm.