FARCE, mistaken identities and escalating mayhem are at the heart of It Runs In The Family, a classic comedy by renowned British playwright Ray Cooney.
The story centres on Dr Mortimore, a leading surgeon at one of London’s most prestigious hospitals, who is preparing to deliver the “Lecture of the Year” to 200 of the world’s leading neurologists.
His carefully ordered world is thrown into chaos when Jane Tate, a former nurse and romantic fling from 18 years earlier, arrives unexpectedly with life-changing news.
She reveals their brief affair produced a child, now 18, who is at the hospital searching for his father.
Desperate to protect his reputation, Dr Mortimore attempts to hide the truth, only for each lie to create further complications.
The result is a whirlwind of mistaken identities, frantic improvisation and increasingly outrageous situations involving Dr Mortimore’s friend Dr Bonney, a police sergeant, his wife, a formidable hospital matron and an unsuspecting patient.
Director Anne McClenahan is no stranger to Cooney’s work and said the experienced cast had embraced the opportunity to experiment with the comedy.
“The cast have a lot of experience between them and so I feel comfortable workshopping ideas with them,” McClenahan said.
“We’ll try something and see if it works; if not, we re-work it. We try lots of different things and settle on what makes the most of us laugh.
“I am very proud that we are getting laughs out of things which I’m sure Cooney didn’t intend when he wrote the play.”
McClenahan believes audiences should be prepared to embrace the production’s absurdity.
“There are a LOT of funny moments in the play and if you don’t laugh, you’ve got a heart of stone!” she said.
“It is set in the 1960s and so I will be interested to see how it goes over with the under 30s.
“There was no political correctness back then – people just said what they thought and damn the consequences!
“The play should be viewed through that paradigm, in much the same way as we make allowances for the behaviours of people in Shakespeare’s time.
“You definitely have to suspend your disbelief and just surrender to the ridiculousness of the moment.”
McClenahan is also appearing in the production, describing the challenge of acting and directing simply: “A second head would be helpful!”
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