Stage Review - Caught in the Net (Bremerton Community Theatre)
Stage Review - Caught in the Net
Presented By: Bremerton Community Theatre - Bremerton, WA
Show Run: October 04 - October 20, 2024
Date Reviewed: Saturday, October 05, 2024 (Opening Weekend)
Reviewed By: Greg Heilman
The thing about sequels is, whether they are considered good or bad, is in large part due to how they compare to the original. History has plenty of examples of sequels that are better than the original, as well as a number that don’t make the grade. And while sequels are commonplace in film, they are less so on the stage. A little while ago, I reviewed the Bremerton Community Theatre (BCT) production of Ray Cooney’s Run for Your Wife (https://www.thesoundonstage.org/stage-reviews/stage-reviews-one-man-two-guvnors-tlt-run-for-your-wife-bct), the story of John Smith, his two wives, and the ruse of a double-life that he has built for himself, and the time he was almost found out, and would have been had it not been for his out of work neighbor Stanley Gardner. BCT’s current offering is the rare direct sequel to a play, in this case Caught in the Net, which takes place 18 years after the events of Run For Your Wife, with John still a bigamist, still a taxi driver, and still amazingly able to get away with it all. When Dan Estes signed on direct both of these shows that open the theatre’s season, I’m sure he envisioned running both shows back to back with the same set and the same cast, which would have made things much easier logistically and for the sake of continuity. Such as things are in live theatre, neither came to pass. In Community Theatre, where schedules are balanced between shows, work, family, and other responsibilities, it’s difficult to get actors to be able to commit to two consecutive shows, so it’s understandable that he wouldn’t be able to stage the same cast. Additionally, while Run For Your Wife was presented on BCT’s larger Robert Montgomery Auditorium, its sequel, which runs through October 20, has been relegated to their black box Robert B. Stewart Performance Hall.
A new cast, a smaller theatre, and a story that, while funny, isn’t quite the original, are the challenges thrust upon Dan Estes when producing this show. There’s only one returning cast member, Gary Fetterplace, who reprises his role as neighbor Stanley Gardner. In the last 18 years, at some point Stanley moved from neighbor to lodger, having moved in with the Smiths, well the Wimbledon Smiths, as opposed to the Streatham Smiths. And the fact that Gary is back in this role is a good thing, as Caught in the Net features Stanley Gardner more than any of the other characters and seemingly more than Run For Your Wife, Cooney obviously feeling like this character deserves more of a spotlight. And again, while Caught in the Net is very funny, and Gary’s performance is just as good, maybe better, than his Run For Your Wife turn, the fact is that the story doesn’t really do anything new. There are some changes, specifically that each Smith family now has a child, who inadvertently discover each other and the fact that each have a father named John Smith, who share a middle name, age, and occupation. How coincidental, right? There are many questions that this chapter poses. Will John finally get caught? Will he be successfully able to keep these two kids apart when they are set on meeting each other, and his unknowing wives share their children’s enthusiasm about it? And will Stanley Gardner be able to take his father on their much deserved vacation? You’ll have to come out and see Caught in the Net to find out the answers to these questions, and while, again, the play doesn’t break any new ground, many of the gags follow the same formula as Run For Your Wife, it’s still a funny night out, and getting to those answers is pretty darn funny. It’s still a complex (and complicated) farce, and for any fans of that genre, this is a most enjoyable play.
And speaking of Gary, as the set designer/builder, he was faced with his own challenges around trying to recreate the set from the larger auditorium in the smaller black box space. All and all, it’s pretty impressive what he’s done here. The same color palettes are used for the two flats that are sometimes used at the same time to depict scenes occurring simultaneously, and the same, or similar, furniture and artwork are placed on the set. The only difference really is in how the front doors to the flats are staged, but that’s a minor change and most likely a result of not having the same depth on the RBS stage as he had to work with on the main stage. From an overall design perspective, most things are similar, including costumes (Kristi Ann Jacobson), lighting (Dale Borer), and sound (Kevin Matthew). In fact, from an operational perspective, Saturday evening’s performance ran much smoother on the technical end than the opening night performance of Run For Your Wife did, not a single cue was missed and all and all the show ran well.
The show, Iike its predecessor, goes very quickly, it’s wonderfully paced and the humor is well delivered. In a farce like Caught in the Net, that all comes down to casting. And if you read my review of Run For Your Wife, it’s clear how good cast that was, and it shouldn’t be a surprise to hear of my nervousness when I approached this on my calendar knowing that the cast was going to be completely different. And yes, it took a little bit to push the other cast out of my mind, as each actor brings his or her own flavor to these roles, and in particular the delivery of the humor. But that didn’t take long, and what I soon realized this past Saturday is that this is just as strong of a group, their approach to the characters is just a little different, which should be expected. In this production, Joel Oliver is John Smith. John does a nice job here with the balancing of his two families and I like the way he pulls out all of the stops to prevent the two children from meeting, managing to make the chaos of the situation even worse when he tries to make it better. His wives Barbara and Mary are played by Ronni Wolfe and Josi Twigt, respectively. Ronni and Josi are wonderful in their naïveté, though some of their best work is when they’re not even on stage (they get locked into rooms a lot). The children in question, Gavin and Vicki (Trevor Easley and Emery Ray) are both good young actors and do well here also. Credit to Emery for her accent, it’s good and consistent, as is Josi’s, but I do have a thought on accents when it comes to a piece like this, or its predecessor. In this play, I feel like either everyone should use an accent or nobody should, the ones without, or the ones who use them inconsistently, stand out against those that do. In addition to the children, there is one other new character here, Stanley’s father, simply listed as Mr. Gardner in the show’s program. This is the Mr. Gardner that Stanley has been trying to get off on holiday until he once again gets roped into John Smith’s crazy world. In this role, Daniel Lunsford-Melin is simply hilarious. He gets caught up in the web of lies and misunderstandings, and while I said that Caught in the Net doesn’t offer anything new in the humor department, Daniel’s work here may be the exception, perhaps the biggest surprise of the show, at least for me.
As I’ve stated before as well, farces rely on their ensembles to be successful, and this group’s work is nicely done. There always seems to be those scenes where people just miss each other, one goes in a room while someone comes out of another. The timing in this show works and works well. They also manage those scenes where both households are on the stage at the same time. Their ability to focus on their conversation and movement while another is going on at the same time does not go unnoticed, and Dan’s blocking make sure that both families can coexist in their own plane.
Caught in the Net is the sequel to Ray Cooney’s Run For Your Wife, and the BCT production most certainly feels like it, though told with a new cast and a different theatre space than its predecessor. Set 18 years later, Caught in the Net seems to pick up right where Run For Your Wife left off, with respect to energy, humor, pace, and overall entertainment value, and while it doesn’t really break any new ground comedically, it’s still a well written and funny British farce.
Caught in the Net wruns on stage at Bremerton Community Theatre through October 20. For more information, including tickets, visit https://bctshows.com/.
Photo credit: Matt Haver
