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PHILIP KING

SEE HOW THEY RUN

(SEE HOW THEY RUN )

“See how they run” is one of the funniest farces by Phillip King. So swift is the action, so involved the situations, so rib-tickling the plot in this London hit that at its finish audiences are left as exhausted from laughter as though they had run a foot race.

Galloping in and out of the four doors of an English vicarage are an American actor and actress, a cockney maid who has seen too many American movies, an old maid who “touches alcohol for the first time in her life,” four men in clergyman suits presenting the problem of which is which (for disguised as one is an escaped prisoner), and a sedate Bishop aghast at all these goings-on and the trumped up stories they tell him.

The play is set in 1943 in a little town in England, in the living room of a vicarage. Things go awry when a pompous church matron, Miss Skillon, comes calling unannounced and a male friend from the young vicar’s wife’s past comes to visit, while Lionel Toop, the good vicar is away. The story moves into light but misinterpreted scandal, mistaken identities, the mugging of the good vicar, and the church matron’s introduction to heavy drinking (which she has never done before). Throw in another vicar and a witty maid, who is a little off and you have a comedy that will make even the grumpiest smile!

Director: Marcin Sławiński