A classic farce from Shoestring theatre

See How They Run, the latest production by Stamford Shoestring Theatre Company, is one of the funniest English farces ever written and a period piece that has stood the test of time.

Being staged at Stamford Arts Centre next month, it is set in 1944 in the vicarage of Merton-cum Middlewick, a village which is rather too near a prisoner-of war camp!

The characters are involved in a plot of mistaken identity and mishaps which inevitably gets out of control.

What Philip King conveyed so well in his writing are the hilarious comic situations and misunderstandings which arise between the vicar, Lionel Toop, and his wife Penelope (a feisty ex-actress), Miss Skillon, the spinster stalwart of the parish, and the sparky Cockney maid, Ida.

Added to this potent mix is a desperate German internee on the run, a dashing old acting pal of the vicar’s wife who is billeted nearby and the visiting Bishop of Lax.

Fast changes of costume and an elaborate chase scene lead to one of the men of cloth dressed only in his underwear!

It stars Vikki Fallow-Norton, Guy Sharman, Kevin McCabe, Rob Lynch, Hannah Yeates and Annie de Kremer and is suitable for the whole family– perfect for a pre-Christmas evening at the theatre.

It runs, at the Arts Centre, from Tuesday, December 8 to Saturday, December 12. Tickets on 01780 763203.