Theater: Run for Your Wife

Author: Ray Cooney
Original title: Run For Your Wife: A Comedy
Theatrical title: Běž za svou ženou
Language: Czech
Director: Václav Luks, Jan Nosek Novák
Genres: Comedy
Cast: Andrea Bulišová, Barbora Mottlová, Jiří Racek, Václav Čížkovský
Time: 110m
Theater: Branické divadlo, Prague

Summary:
       A taxi driver gets away with having two wives in different areas of London because of his irregular working schedule. Complication is piled upon complication as the cabby tries to keep his double life from exploding.

About the author:
      Raymond George Alfred Cooney (born 30 May 1932) is an English playwright and actor. His biggest success, Run for Your Wife, ran for nine years in London's West End and is its longest-running comedy. He has had 17 of his plays performed there.

About the play:
     A London taxi driver has two wives, not because he's any great lady-killer, but because he didn't want to upset the second woman who pursued him. It all works until he gets in a small accident, but then the police come around and he just can't get his story straight. That's pretty much the story on this funny little farce.

About the cast:
        Unfortunately, I must say that I enjoyed a performance of only 3 out of 8 actors. Those are Václav Čížkovský (playing Stanley Gardner), Jiří Racek (playing John Brown) and (playing Mary Brown)
       As though it was quite decent, the performance of Mr and Mrs Brown did not impress too much. I liked how they put emotions and they seemed quite natural, but still something was amiss, and that prevented me from enjoying their performance. Václav Čížkovský's execution, on the other hand, was impeccable. I was not able to recall any scene with him, where I would not enjoy his act, he skillfully masters his body and facial movement as well as his voice.
       Two of the actors: Barbora Mottlová (playing Barbara Brown) and Martin Hartl (playing a reporter) irritated me a great deal. Especially the 5 second appearance of a reporter was so badly done, that I am still annoyed. It is surprising that such a small role can influence the perception of the play all together.

Final thoughts:
     Overall, I find the comedy as a whole was a well done play that kept the attention of the audience at all times. I think it had great humor and it was nice humor with less of the door slamming and physical comedy than often goes with farce.
      I liked the way how the play escalated from an uncomfortable situation to a complete nonsense with so many people involved and with so many cooked up explanations that you try to do your best to not to mix anything and not to join in the common madness on the stage. One hilarious predicament after another