REVIEW: 'Secrets, lies and unconvincing disguises' in It Runs in the Family

Deep Chesterfield armchairs,  heavy wooden desk, sash windows, curtains, a windowseat built into a bay – the doctors’ common room fittings and fixtures look solid and dependable, just like the medics who use it, surely? 

We are at St Andrew’s Hospital, it’s three days before Christmas 1992, and young Dr Connolly is enthusing about the panto for patients, much to the aggravation of Dr Mortimore who’s preparing to deliver  an important speech – the annual Ponsonby Lecture to 200 neurologists from across the globe. 

His wife Rosemary arrives to wish him luck, boss Sir Willoughby Drake barks orders about the speech, and fellow doctor Hubert Bonney cheerily gets on his nerves, but it’s the arrival of a long-gone colleague that really provokes his autonomic nervous system.

Jane, formerly Nurse Tate, nervously reveals that their fling of years ago led to something that two medics shouldn’t be surprised about – and the result, Leslie, has just turned 18 and is going ‘beserk’ in the hospital lobby demanding to see his father.

Mortimore fibs and fabricates to keep himself out of trouble until the tissue of lies becomes a man-size box. Throw in a policeman wanting to charge the excitable youth, young Leslie himself, a demanding elderly patient named Mr Leslie and a redoutable Matron and you’ve all the fixtures for a very lively farce.

Some moments jar modern sensibilities, in 1992 would people in London be using ‘illegitimate’ as an adjective? And thank goodness the clinch between Hubert and Matron is well directed – and acted – as pure pantomime heading off any offence. 

Secrets and lies and unconvincing disguises, it’s so pacy and well-put-together, you just have to run with it.

The able Steven Pinder is on stage throughout holding it together as Mortimore, James Bradshaw is a likeable and long-suffering Bonney and the whole cast brings great brio to a physically demanding show. My friend and I were pleased to see Rachel Fielding, as Rosemary Mortimore, get the last laugh of the many in this slightly stressful but highly enjoyable show.

It Runs in the Family is showing at the Mill at Sonning until Saturday April 12.