Community theatre group, Franklin Players’ mid-month play is set to hit the Roosevelt Park Recreation Centre stage for two weekends.
Its thespians will perform Caught in the Net, a British farce written by Ray Cooney and performed for the first time in London 22 years ago at the Vaudeville Theatre. The play is the sequel to his much-acclaimed farce, Run for your Wife, which Franklin Players have performed three times over the past 61 years.
The theatre group showcases at least three productions a year, from their annual festival of one-act plays to mid-year comedies and year-end musicals. Its chairperson, Hendrik Greyvenstein, said groups like theirs are important within a community as they offer a stepping stone to anybody that wishes to advance as a professional and community members who may just want to have their time on stage.
For Greyvenstein it’s the arts that help form a community, “Take a stage play, for instance, when you seat a group of complete strangers in the hall, you have an audience. But once those stage curtains open, something magical happens. Strangers laughing at a comedy performed on stage offers a brief hour or two to interact as a community and enjoy life.”
To prepare for a show like this it takes about 12 weeks of dedication to rehearsals three times a week. There is a built set with seven doors which, according to Greyvenstein, was no small feat to erect given the limited budget and available materials, “But all cast members are hands on deck each Saturday to help build and paint the set.”
Caught in the Net is set 18 years after the first play which introduced John Smith as a taxi driver and bigamist who chaotically avoids his two wives meeting through the aid of his friend, Stanley Gardener. Now he has two teenage children, and he finds out that they met on the internet and have arranged to meet. Once again Stanley must come to the rescue, but can they succeed or does everything go potty?
Tickets for Caught in the Net are available on Quicket, https://www.quicket.co.za/events/223011-caught-in-the-net/
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