It is not surprising to discover that playwright Ray Cooney worked with that doyen of farce, Brian Rix at the Whitehall Theatre in 1956. Absorbing knowledge there helped him to go on to write some of the most frenetic and funniest comedies which are a particular challenge for amateurs.

CODA's drama section make a welcome return to the Ashcroft Theatre with Alex Goldfinch starring as the bigamist taxi driver John Smith who runs two flats and two wives – in Wimbledon and Streatham. Everything is going reasonably smoothly to his tight schedule until he 'has a go' against some thugs and is hospitalised to have his head wound dressed, thus missing his hours with Barbara the Streatham wife and being brought home to Mary, the Wimbledon one, by a concerned policeman.

Alex Goldfinch injected a goodly amount of comic timing into his performance, ably assisted by Wayne Trice as Stanley, the upstairs neighbour. The two of them produced the required quick fire repartee and solutions to complicated circumstances without quite going OTT. Facial expressions helped underline the comic lines. Emma Chalcraft and Clare Drake created contrasting wives as Mary and Barbara with Emma growing slowly uptight and eventually realistically hysterical, whilst Clare gave Barbara pragmatism leading, finally, to proactive indignation.

Trying to make sense of the many outrageous explanations given to them by John and Stanley, David Callanan made a welcome return to the stage after 28 years as DS Troughton of the Wimbledon police; assertive and seemingly not easily fooled. Bob Dann made DS Porterhouse of Streatham police more gullible and friendly, looking particularly amenable in his large white pinafore apron as he prepared tea for the exhausted characters.

Rather stealing the scene as the new upstairs neighbour in Streatham, Peter Davis created a marvellously camp Bobby Franklin in a gem of a cameo role and Michael Trakas did a 'blink and you miss him' entrance as the newspaper photographer. The set itself was a little under dressed and on Wednesday's first night wobbled worryingly – both of which may well have been rectified as the run continued. Backstage the ubiquitous Kennard family took a variety of important roles and Ken Nicholson, a member of CODA for 38 years now, used his considerable theatrical knowledge to direct.

Theo Spring

4 stars