June 20, 2007 — Melee will be sweet as the Reichhold Center for the Arts’ Caribbean Repertory Theater continues its run of the hit British comedy “Run for Your Wife” the next two weekends at UVI’s Little Theater.
The play tells a story of a local taxi driver, John Smith (played by Dwight Browne) who has two unsuspecting wives: Mary (Bridget R. Hodge), who lives in Red Hook, and Barbara (Almaria Powell), tucked away in Bordeaux Hills.
John successfully manages both marriages for three years by spending mornings with Barbara and evenings with Mary. But his world comes crashing down after he bravely intervenes in the mugging of an elderly woman. John gets injured and ends up in the hospital, sending his meticulously set schedule out the door. Unfortunately for him, the police end up returning him to the wrong home at the wrong time.
His life goes even more downhill when his picture appears in the papers and the police begin to suspect his two identities. John's secret unravels when his neighbor, Stanley Gardner (played by Seymour Davis), tries to help but ends up making matters worse.
Playwright Felix Fleming adapted the British comedy to reflect the St. Thomas region and culture. Flemings also directs the play and has other successful plays to his credit, including “The Island” and “Queen Coziah.”
Thus far he is pleased with the play, Fleming said, calling last week’s audience reaction “riotous.”
“It’s a rollicking comedy, and I don’t care how serious you are, you are gonna come here and laugh,” he said.
After a successful showing in Anguilla, Fleming decided to bring the play to St. Thomas. It was originally written by Ray Cooney and won fame in theaters in London’s West End.
The Reichhold Caribbean Repertory Theater, a segment of the Reichhold Center for the Arts, was founded by Felix Fleming and David Edgecombe in 1994. Just one year later, the company featured such plays as “I Don’t Want to Bathe," "Hotel Cristobel" and "Smile Orange.” Between seasonal breaks, the company traveled throughout the Caribbean and came back strong in 2005 with Edgecombe’s successful “For Better For Worse.”
After a five-year “hiatus,” the theater is staging two plays this summer, with “Oliver Samuels” up next, said co-director Pamela Sanes.
“The buzz is out there” for the current play, Sanes said. Audiences “have been very, very responsive to the cast, and a lot have come back,” she said.
The rest of the cast: Tavis DeWindt, Samantha Mathurin, Dwyght Browne, Amber Norris, Dawuud Nyamekye and Lael Lettsome. Hodge and Powell appeared in Fleming’s “Queen Coziah.”
Tickets run $20 and $15 for UVI Students, and are available at Modern Music, Parrot Fish records, V.I. Bridal and Tuxedo, the UVI bookstore and the Reichhold Center box office. For more information, contact the box office at 340-693-1559.
