Hilariously "Caught in the Net"

The Brown County Playhouse in Nashville, Ind., has brought another hit to its summer stage with Ray Cooney's "Caught in the Net." The comedy was nominated for the 2002 Olivier -- Britain's version of the Tony Award -- and the 2001 Evening Standard Award for Best New Comedy. The sequel to Cooney's hilarious stage play "Run for Your Wife," "Caught in the Net" is a British farce about a London taxi driver trying to maintain his double life.\nFor years, John Smith has managed to keep his two households with two wives and two sets of children a secret. None of his family members suspect he lives in two worlds. The seams of Smith's precarious double life threaten to rip apart when his daughter from one wife meets his son from the other over the internet and decides to meet him. Smith's frantic attempts to prevent his children and wives from discovering his secret launches a series of hilarious plot twists that make this show well worth seeing.\nThe character of Stanley Gardner, Smith's best friend, returns from "Run for Your Wife." Gardner helps Smith successfully keep his secret from his wives. Brilliantly acted by Scot Purkeypile, Gardner's antics are deviously funny and always full of action, despite being on stage for most of the play. Purkeypile handled the role of Gardner so well that he turned the character from one that could be potentially annoying to one the audience never tires of seeing.\nWith the help of voice and diction coach senior John DeBoer, the actors successfully carried their British accents throughout the show without dropping them or fading in and out.\nWhat truly made the show enjoyable was the clever set. While the play is set in two different homes, the stage was not cut in half, as one would expect, to convey two specific locales. Instead, the two houses blended together into one, and the actors played on the same stage in the same house, sometimes simultaneously. The characters would open the door for a person in the other house without even batting an eye. The actors did an excellent job of pretending to be in separate places and to not see each other, though they were, indeed, in the two locations separated only by imagination. \nThe show moves so quickly that there is barely time to blink during scenes without missing a line or action. When I left the play, my stomach ached from laughing so hard during this riveting performance.