I'm a fan of patterns and connectedness in theaters; producing several plays by one writer or seeing the growth of actors, directors and designers over multiple productions adds an extra layer of interest and meaning, so long as the choices are artistically sound.

So I applaud Hedgerow Theatre's summer farce series, now in its fifth season of producing the prolific Brit Ray Cooney's confections. The string of successes began with Run For Your Wife in 2002, then its sequel Caught in the Net, then Funny Money, last summer's Move Over Mrs. Markham and the current hit, Out Of Order, with no slip in quality.

Cooney's farces feature sexual frustration: Characters want to get it on, usually extramaritally, but circumstances foil them. Out Of Order, written in 1990, was inspired by a British government sex scandal, but the play's politics are incidental to the comic coitus interruptus.

Dave Christoffersen plays Richard Willey — his name the first of innumerable innuendoes — a minister in Margaret Thatcher's government who's arranged an assignation with Jane (pert Jean-Louise O'Sullivan), a secretary from opposition leader Neil Kinnock's office. When they discover a body (hilariously played by loose-limbed Nicholas Park), apparently crushed by a heavy window that crashes down often through the play, they decide in an escalating panic (another Cooney staple) to concoct a cover-up.

Mr. Willey, besieged by a geriatric waiter (Alan Kutner), an unctuous manager (Keon Mohajeri) and a scandalized maid (Maggie Flynn), enlists his own secretary, the hapless George Pigden (pronounced with a hard "g," and played by Zoran Kovcic), to help move the body. The situation builds crazily, fueled by Mr. Willey's desperate lies (another Cooney art) and entrances by Jane's suspicious husband Ronnie (Newton Buchanan), George's mother's nurse (Susan Wefel) and, of course, Mrs. Willey, played with monstrous fun by Marilien Mogendorff.

Director Penelope Reed drives the action with a sure hand, though allowing some actors to push for laughs (e.g., Kutner abandons his wonderful bass voice for a put-on falsetto, and adopts an awful old-man shuffle). Set designer Kovcic's multidoored, slam-proofed set is an exquisite creation in shades of teal, and Cathie Miglionico's colorful costumes add to the fun — though why Ronnie is gotten up as a cowboy in London is anyone's guess.

Don't dig for meaning — it's summer, it's a Cooney farce and the laughs are guaranteed.

OUT OF ORDER

610-565-4211, www.hedgerowtheatre.org