Net their be light

Back when he was a young actor in the early ‘50s Ray Cooney wanted nothing more than to be Marlon Brando or Laurence Olivier. And even though he may have failed, in terms of that elated aspiration, he has nevertheless become one of the most popular and widely produced playwrights in the world.

Ray’s early aspirations also add a layer of irony to the fact that his play, Caught In The Net, which recently received its Irish premiere and is now touring nationwide, was nominated for a 2002 Best Comedy Oliver Award, named after the late Sir Laurence.
But Cooney himself admits that, having acted in 150 plays – including everything from Shakespeare to Tennessee Williams – his life changed during the late ‘50s when he started working at Brian Rix’s farce company in London. He had an epiphany –suddenly, he “really appreciated what laughter could do”. Cooney also discovered he had a talent for writing comedy. His most famous play, written in 1983, is Run For Your Wife, which tells of a cabbie who smoothly maintains a life of covert bigamy – with wives on both sides of town. Caught In The Net updates the story into the 21st century.
“And what I discovered about comedy is that it can be very, very healing and still, there is nothing as joyful for me as standing at the back of a theatre and hearing audiences, all over the world, roll around in laughter at one of my plays” he says. “But what I try to do, as in Caught In The Net, is hook people into the story first. I don’t start off with it being crazy, Benny Hill, Monty Python, whatever.
In fact, there aren’t many laughs to start with and it is a serious situation. Here is a guy with two wives, two families and he’s got away with this for years and he knows it’s not right.
But he loves these two ladies and he loves each of his kids and then, on this particular day, we met them in Caught In The Net, his whole life is going to be destroyed.
“And though I don’t dwell on it, the actual basic premise of bigamy is serious business. For a wife to discover she is caught up in a bigamist marriage, after 20, 25 years, is the worst kind of betrayal. Because it’s not as if he is just having a fling with a secretary in the office, he married someone else and he has kids and a dog and cat and a whole other experience. So, I’ve no doubt that if Tom Stoppard or Tennessee Williams got hold of this it would be a very different play! But, in the end I go for highlighting the farcical elements.”
In keeping with the traditions of French farce and, yes, Ray Cooney’s plays are immensely popular in France, where Caught In The Net is also soon to receive its premiere in translation. But given the prodigious amount of plays Ray has written since 1983 why did he revisit the characters from Run For Your Wife and update their story?
“I very nearly didn’t write it because I kept thinking, ‘What is the point in trying to follow Run For Your Wife? It was so successful, shut up and get on with other plays,’” he responds. “But after doing that for nearly 20 years I got the idea, ‘What if he had two kids? What if they met?’ So I made the kids 16, 17 and I have them meeting on the Internet and that’s when I decided, ‘Yep, I am going to write this.’ And what’s really gratifying is that kids in the audience have come up to me and said that absolutely love the pay-off in this play.”
What is that pay-off? I’m afraid you will have to go and see Caught In the Net to find out out. The current production touring Ireland is directed by Mark Lambert and includes in its cast many actors who are well known from their roles in Fair City, Tony Tormey, Tom Hopkins, George McMahon, Jenny Kavanagh, Elizabeth Moynihan, Michelle Costello and Brian De Salvo. It runs at the Town Hall in Galway until next Saturday.

Caught In The Net is currently touring nationwide. See local Press.