Wherever Rusty Hendrix goes, Bob Hendrix usually isn’t far away.

It’s been that way since they got married 34 years ago.

Even before.

“I was the best man at her first wedding,” Bob Hendrix said with a smile.

“He was,” Rusty said.

“Bob and I were best friends.”

Their inseparable ways continue to play out all these years later, including at the Whidbey Playhouse in Oak Harbor.

Bob Hendrix is directing a British farce, “Run For Your Wife,” that opens at the playhouse Friday, Nov. 7, while his wife is serving as producer.

Normally, it’s Rusty Hendrix, the playhouse’s president, playing the role of director. That is, until her husband caught the directing bug.

“I was director and Bob really had nothing to do with theater, but we like being together, so he would build my sets for me,” Rusty said. “That’s how it started off.”

That was 20 years ago. Since then, Rusty has directed about 20 plays and acted in about as many with a familiar companion on the set nearby.

“It got to the point where people thought I was the playhouse set builder,” Bob said.

These days, Bob works to build actors’ confidence and keep production flowing smoothly.

“Run For Your Wife” is the third play Bob Hendrix has directed at the playhouse, all farces by Ray Cooney.

The play is fast-paced with humor interjected in rapid-fire succession, all requiring a certain timing to make it work.

The play is set in London in the early 1980s and centered around a taxi driver whose long-kept secret of having two wives is unraveling before him. The character, John Smith, is played by Jim Otruba.

The cast includes some familiar faces and some who haven’t been onstage in a while.

The wives are played by Krista Ross, left, and Shealyn Christie. Ross, who plays Mary Smith, hasn’t acted onstage in 12 years.

A key character is Smith’s neighbor Stanley Gardner, played by Sean Hall. He works with Smith to try to keep the secret, which starts to become exposed after a mugging sends Smith to the hospital and police become suspicious after discovering two addresses.

Bob Hendrix is intimately familiar with the British farce as he was a cast member in the play several years ago at the Anacortes Community Theatre.

Bob played the role of detective while his twin brother played the other police investigator.

Playing those roles at the Whidbey Playhouse are Ron Wilhelm and Thomas Clatterbuck.

Bob Hendrix has had this show on his mind for months.

“I took the script with me when I was on vacation this summer and blocked it,” he said, referring his trip to Disneyland.

Rusty Hendrix said her husband’s understanding of comedic timing rings true in his plays.

“I think he’s great,” she said.

“In a farce, it has to be fast because the stories are usually so silly that you shouldn’t allow the audience time to think about the story,” Bob said. “You move it so fast, you keep them laughing.”

Laughs come easily around Bob and Rusty Hendrix, especially when they’re together.

“They’re just a really well-matched couple,” said Julia Locke, who, along with husband Jack, are close friends of the Hendrixes.

“They like the same things.”

Bob and Rusty Hendrix have called Oak Harbor home for 25 years after moving from the Bay Area following the major earthquake that rattled that area in 1989.

They followed relatives to Oak Harbor and found another close-knit group at the playhouse.

“It’s family here,” Rusty said.

Rusty’s mother, Edna Downs, who has a theater background in England, also lives in Oak Harbor, as does her sister, Diana Geragotelis, who owns the Ballet Slipper Conservatory.

“I guess we’re kind of artsy,” Rusty said.

Often surrounded by family, including at the theater, Bob and Rusty have four children and seven grandchildren.

And, most importantly, they have each other.

“I love doing anything with her,” Bob said. “I like just sitting around and doing nothing with her.”

“We can still sit around and cuddle on the couch,” Rusty said. “It’s really nice.”

British farce opens Friday

Run for Your Wife is playing Nov. 7-23 at the Whidbey Playhouse.

The play starts at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. Sundays.

Tickets are $18. For more information, call 360-679-2237 or go to www.whidbeyplayhouse.com