In de kast, op de kast

One of the earliest Farces by John Lanting's Theater van de Lach, translated from Petrwee's "Don't just lie there, say something", and shown on Tros television, the biggest family pleasing Omroep in the Netherlands. Its plot is as slight as it is indescribable. The play opens on a recently abandoned bride, still wearing her wedding gown (Maroesja Lacunes, a.k.a. Tika from Ti-Ta Tovenaar), is crying her eyes out on the shoulder of her former employer, Minister of domestic affairs Hendrik de Greep (Johan Sirag), who is actually more interested in planning a rendezvous with his new, longer legged secretary, Annelies Balhan (but only because his regular mistress was unable to attend). John Lantink himself makes a late entrance (and without the usual thunderous applause at this early stage in his career) as the belated bride groom Boudewijn Kink, whom it turns out was kidnapped by a bunch of anarchist hippies and taken to an orgy in Voorburg to try to take compromising pictures, as well as shave of his mustache (plot point). Complicating matters is the self imposed visit of his the ministers irritating rival Theo de Kadt (Flip Heeneman, making the first of many appearances in Lanting's productions) who comes to stay in the flat upstairs because his granddaughter Johanna is away for the week (another plot point).

During his escape from the hippies, Boudewijn appears to have knocked out two policemen (very unlikely) in an attempt not to be recognized. However, Inspektor Spijker (Floris van Spronsen) is on his trail and has the habit to pop in and out the window and the door without knocking throughout the rest of the play. Each time he does so, Kink and the minister are caught in the most inconvenient of situations, forcing them to start making up increasingly preposterous excuses involving twin brothers from Australia, fainting illnesses, night nurses in their underwear and more. De Kadth keeps dropping in and out of the story as well, though he spends most of his stage time looking for a lavatory. Soon, Kink finds himself pretending to be different persons to different men: a policeman to De Kadth, his own brother Karel (from Australia) to the police inspector, until his fiancée can find a fake mustache for him to wear as himself (see, I told you the 'tache was important). Later on De Greep's other mistress (the one who canceled earlier on) turns up and strips down to her underwear, and she soon finds herself a part of this pack of lies as well. By the end the whole story has become so improbable that they just end it on a note of confusion instead of trying to come up with a plausible resolution. This late seventies production is a good example of how Lanting's troupe of traveling performers got together, though the plot involving hippies was probably already outdated by the time it was first broadcast on television.

8 out of 10