To be honest, I'm not generally a fan of farce. That is not to say that I have not fallen on the floor laughing over a spectacularly well-done example; but the prospect of watching people running around slamming doors in service to a plot that is full of inevitables makes my toes curl.

I know, however, that lots of people love the genre, and many people in the audience of "There Goes the Bride" at Swift Creek Mill seemed to be having lots of fun watching Ray Cooney and John Chapman's 1974 comedy. I had some laughs, too, thanks especially to dapper-yet-zany Richard Koch and bumblingly hilarious John Hagadorn.

The play takes place in Timothy and Ursula Westerby's London home. Ursula (Vicki McLeod) is busy preparing for the wedding of her daughter Judy (Christine Schneider) to Australian-born Nick Babcock. Ursula's parents, Gerald and Daphne Drummond (Hagadorn and Jolene Carroll), are on hand, as is Timothy's business partner, Bill Shorter (Brandon Becker). Timothy (Koch) returns from picking up wedding flowers, fretting about his advertising firm's clients and fuming over the caterers in the garden. He runs headlong into an opening door, and -- bang! -- a figment of his imagination comes to life, invisible to everyone but him.

This leads to countless misunderstandings, puns, pratfalls, and ever-more-serious tardiness as the groom's mother, Priscilla, telephones repeatedly from the church. In the second act, Priscilla (Joy William) arrives in high dudgeon, trying to unravel the problem--and unravel it does, in uproarious farce fashion.

The Mill's artistic director, Tom Width, can by now be classified as a specialist in British farce, so he knows that razor-sharp timing is everything, and he succeeds most of the time in this production. But there are notable lapses, including too many flubbed lines and a couple of timing errors by Carroll. The English accents range from great to wobbly, while Williams, as the lone Aussie, seems to come from the Cockney neighborhood of Sydney. (Her role is ordinarily played by a man as the groom's father; perhaps Width changed it to showcase Williams' over-the-top comedy chops.)

But there are some great performances. Koch is irresistible whether doing his nervous businessman bit or broad physical comedy. No one can trip over his own pants like he can. McLeod is the calm center of the storm, and Becker has the arch Shorter down perfectly. Hagadorn adds just the right note of confusion while contributing surprising flights of grace, and Audra Honaker is a hilarious bundle of nonstop energy as Timothy's imaginary friend.

Width designed the lovely, detailed set, and Maura Lynch Cravey's costumes are particularly nice, from Judy's wedding dress to Ursula's mother-of-the-bride dress. And Priscilla's peach shantung suit is beautiful when dry, yet amusingly unkempt when wet.