Photo by Russ Bickerstaff
Elm Grove’s Sunset Playhouse enters September with Run For Your Wife—Ray Cooney’s British farce. Brian Zelinski directs the bigamy comedy in a cabbie named John (Phil Stepanski) gets mixed-up in a mugging that causes him to stumble into difficulties with both of his wives. Tanya Tranberg plays Mary. Allison Chicorel plays Barbara. Mary doesn’t know about Barbara. Barbara doesn’t know about Mary. John has a hell of a time keeping it all straight.
Zelinski and company do a respectable job of keeping the action moving. The manic chaos of the script has potential for greater intensity than the cast manages, but Zelinski has fostered an energy the allows for a deeper connection with each of the characters than most farces manage. The slower pace of the craziness allows for a bit more of an emotionally reflective comedy in a welcome alternative to the dizziness of a more traditionally paced farce.
Josh Scheibe sparkles around the edges of the action as John’s unemployed upstairs neighbor Stanley Gardner who finds himself thrust into the confusion of trying to keep two wives balanced amidst investigations of a pair of policemen. Scheibe has a deft handle on the wild energy needed to maintain the tilted momentum of the comedy careening through every lie and fabrication. Stepanski harnesses a more stable momentum as John, allowing the craziness of the situation to form the comedy as he marches bodily through it. The opposing comic dynamics of Scheibe and Stepanski balance each other out as Tranberg and Chicorel smartly play two people unwittingly navigate around each other in the periphery.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
Sunset Playhouse’s production of Run For Your Wife runs through Sept. 26 at the Furlan Auditorium, 700 Wall St., Elm Grove. For tickets, call the box office at 262-782-4430 or visit sunsetplayhouse.com.
1 of 4
Photo by Russ Bickerstaff
2 of 4
Photo by Russ Bickerstaff
3 of 4
Photo by Russ Bickerstaff
4 of 4
Photo by Russ Bickerstaff
