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THEATRE REVIEW: Caught in the Net by the Bourne Footlights




I do wonder how some of the venerable luvvies of the acting profession would cope with taking a part in a British farce.

It’s all very well them banging on about ‘My Lear’ or ‘My Hamlet’, but lengthy and sonorous soliloquies are but a stroll in Lawrance Park compared to the slick, speedy interaction between characters required to bring off a Ray Cooney classic.

So hats off to Bourne Footlights for their rendition of Caught in the Net. The dialogue crackled, the pace never dropped, and although there were a few very minor glitches it was an evening of hilarious entertainment.

I spoke to a cast member after Thursday night’s performance, and the chief worry was “did they (meaning the audience) get it?” After all, Paul Atkinson’s excellent set (which I gather was a pig to construct) included seven doors, that’s four or five more than in the average living room.

Ian Gibbs and Nigel Stacey as Stanley Gardner and John Smith in rehearsals. (5382879)
Ian Gibbs and Nigel Stacey as Stanley Gardner and John Smith in rehearsals. (5382879)

What we needed to ‘get’ was that this set represented the homes of two families in two districts of London, and that sometimes members of both would appear simultaneously, but not necessarily aware of each other’s presence.

Don’t worry, 30 seconds into the first act we did indeed get it, then sat back to enjoy the frenetic action as our two hapless male heroes, John Smith and his lodger Stanley Gardner, dug themselves ever deeper into a Grimpen Mire of their own making.

The Net of the play’s title is, of course, the internet, aided and abetted by the all-powerful iPhone (other brands are available). Through the net young Gavin Smith contacts sweet young Vicki, also a Smith, and they agree to meet. Apparently there are 120,000 Smiths in the London area, but how many kids who have never met in the flesh can boast that their dad’s full name is John Leonard Smith, that his age is 43, and that he drives a taxi for a living?

Yes, this was a tale of a bigamous double life, of youngsters unknowingly sharing the same dad, and all the unspoken horrors of accidental incest – a sort of Ibsen’s Ghosts meets Brian Rix.

Whoever said that this generation has it easy? Affairs, peccadillos, call them what you will, never used to be exposed by the shrilling of mobiles or the all-seeing eye of the tablet.

Most of the comedy stems from John’s frantic attempts to keep the modern-day Romeo and Juliet, and his two wives Mary and Barbara, apart. And central to the deception is poor Stanley Gardner, who, to try and save his old pal, suffers the indignity of being branded a colossal sexual pervert and has to pretend that the venomous Mary is, in fact, his own loving missus.

Whoever said that this generation has it easy? Affairs, peccadillos, call them what you will, never used to be exposed by the shrilling of mobiles or the all-seeing eye of the tablet. Once safely in the car and on the road, rapscallions were in their own little bubble, and completely uncontactable. Not so today. The iPhone is the true villain of the piece in this play, and philanderer John Smith its hapless prey.

And so to the cast. Ian Gibbs as Stanley was in a league of his own as the lodger who only paid his rent on odd months. The hysteria that built as he concocted ever more ludicrous explanations for goings-on he barely understood himself was comic genius. This despite Ian being laid up with a bug for a fortnight before opening night, in an already tight rehearsal schedule of just eight weeks.

The cast of Caught in the Net by Ray Cooney. (5383277)
The cast of Caught in the Net by Ray Cooney. (5383277)

Nigel Stacey as the bigamous John Smith proved that great lovers aren’t all suave and sophisticated. He portrayed the taxi-driving Lothario as an object of ridicule and displayed a fine turn of speed and not a little athleticism as he flung himself around in various panicked guises as a yoga devotee, a snorkeller and a corpse.

Mary and Barbara Smith (Lynn Kirk and Mary Hagger) came across as very different characters – Mary as irascible, with a near-murderous attitude to poor Stanley, the gentler Barbara as increasingly bemused, not to mention perturbed, by the advances of Stan’s elderly father and his wandering hands. But in the end the two women conspired together in a twist that nobody saw coming – they’d been aware of their shared husband’s double life for 15 years. Nevertheless, we have to admire John’s taste in women, both in their own way delectable on stage and off.

Owner of those groping paws was Dad, played with knotted handkerchief and perfect comic timing by Chris Walker… a sort of Gumby blown off course from the coast at Felixstowe but still convinced he’s on a seaside holiday. Making fun of deafness and senility isn’t something today’s ‘snowflakes’ would necessarily approve of, but hey, this is farce, where belief is suspended and the Lord of Misrule is given free reign. Who could be offended by that? Not Thursday’s audience, for sure.

But in the end the two women conspired together in a twist that nobody saw coming – they’d been aware of their shared husband’s double life for 15 years.

Making their stage debut were Aiste Baltrusaityte and Harry Spooner as Vicki and Gavin Smith, central to the plot of this glorious mess. In real life the two teenagers, both aged just 16, have known one another since early childhood, and that chemistry came across in spades.

I do suspect, though, that the sassiness of both these talented youngsters wasn’t entirely staged, and that behind the scenes the director must, at times, have felt as though she was herding cats! For am dram to survive against increasing competition, not least the dreaded Net, new blood needs to come in and grab hold, which these two certainly did. Well done the pair of you!

I did mention at the start of the review that there were minor glitches. Prompter Frances probably had more to do than she’d have liked, but snap-snap dialogue is hard to pull off at the best of times, and a short rehearsal time and cast members off poorly didn’t help. No matter, I wasn’t put off by the prompts, which kept the pace bubbling along.

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering whether incest is a suitable topic for farce, worry not – the twist at the end was that the two kids had different fathers after all.

Mary had enjoyed a fling with lodger Stanley 17 years ago. No wonder she tolerated his presence and allowed him to renege on the rent!

Yes, blackmail is such an ugly thing, and maybe Stanley wasn’t as daft as he looked.

Review by Nick Fletcher



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