It Runs in the Family

This play was written by Ray Cooney OBE, and set in St Andrew’s Hospital, London, all of the scenes taking place in the Doctors common room and directed by Phil Astle.

It was interesting on arrival to see a Hospital Cleaner smoking a “fag” and cleaning at the same time. How things have changed. When I first qualified it was not unheard of for some senior members of staff to smoke on duty in front of patients. Well done to Linda Rhodes for dressing and acting the part and starting the evening off with a laugh.

As the unlikely plot unravelled in true farce fashion, the audience, including me, knew they were in for a riotous evening of laughter and sheer enjoyment much appreciated by all.

The lead role was undertaken by Phil Astle as Dr Mortimore, this role being very demanding as he was on stage for most of the time. So, to undertake that as well as directing could not have been easy, but Phil carried it off with great aplomb and must have been utterly exhausted by the end of the performance.

The premise of Cooney’s farce is that Dr Mortimore, whose medical reputation is in the ascendant, having been selected to deliver the Ponsonby Lecture and in line for a knighthood and promotion has his aspirations interrupted with arrival in the hospital of Leslie, an emotionally scarred young man played superbly by Jonas Woodward, who is on the loose in the hospital looking for his father!  His mother, Jane Tate, a former nurse in the hospital, played by Susan Wyld-Bennett who expertly keeps a cool head as she is surrounded by chaos and mayhem from all sides, is looking for him and in encountering Dr Mortimore, explains that as a result of their fling some eighteen years ago, Leslie is Dr Mortimore’s son!

Under pressure from the exasperated Doctor Willoughby Drake to meet the lecture deadline, David Hill gives the character the gravitas that is required but also an ironic humour that the audience lapped up, Mortimore digs hole after hole as he strenuously tries to avoid the reality of the situation, he counts on the indefatigable and utterly farcical support of Richard Constable’s Dr Bonney and Ben Mills-Woods’ Dr Connolly. They both play their parts to the full, wringing every comedic device out of their respective roles much to the audience’s delight – from cross-dressing to outbursts of cabaret songs and never being able to remember Mortimore’s latest verbal twist!

Joanne Hill, as Mortimore’s caring yet confused wife, Rosemary, brought an air of sanity to the proceedings admirably trying to understand her increasingly deranged husband, which she achieved with style and expertise.

Amy Findlay’s starchy Matron was exactly as you would expect old style hospital matrons to be yet as she got more embroiled in the chaos, her character became more out of character – the scene on the window ledge was the epitome of exquisite comedy timing.

Add into the mix – Josh Plimmer’s supremely naïve Police Constable who vainly tries to restore order and fails spectacularly was splendidly portrayed as was Martin Tedd’s annoying Patient in his wheelchair who successfully adds to the confusion, by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Plus a stella supporting cast of Elizabeth Ormston’s unsuspecting Nurse and Gail Mee, as Dr Bonney’s gullible but charmingly played Mother.

What I, and everyone, liked was the fact that the window at the back of the stage and the clever set design created the illusion of the Common Room being several storeys up and was used to great effect leading to several hilarious situations as various cast members avoided falling off the ledge, which they achieved to great effect and could not have been done better and to brilliant comedic effect.

Each of these actors brought into the play the characters of their respective roles to great effect. The direction given to them worked well throughout. The diction, extremely important as the complicated and fast-paced action demanded, was good, and all dialogue could be heard by all.

Regarding the set the one thing that I kept noticing was that the clock on the wall kept to time when it was mentioned how many minutes left for the presentation to start, you looked at the clock and it was accurate, well done.

As usual for Oldbury there were a number of members helping in roles, Lucy Poulson as Assistant Director, Linda Rhodes as both Production Assistant and Assistant Stage Manager, Stage Manager being Peter Corser, Set design Em Allen plus Phil, Crew Libby Slack, Props Jayne Mills, Sue Jones and Wendy Bounous, Lighting design Nick Fereday and Operators Nick and Mark Guest, Sound design Martin Hudson and Operators Martin and Louis Carr.  Without any of these the show won’t happen, it must be remembered that all are cogs in a giant wheel and if one breaks it will reflect on all.

Well done to all for a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

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