A friend has just asked me what It Runs In The Family was like, and without thinking, I replied, “two hours of continuous hilarity until one could not laugh anymore!”
Playwrights do not pen farces anymore: they are too difficult to bring off, needing intricate plotting and a true sense of the absurd. Ray Cooney, author of It Runs In the Family and now 92 years old, was a master of the craft, writing many of them, including Run For Your Wife, One For the Pot, and Not Now Darling (for Leslie Phillips). It Runs In The Family dates from 1987 and is set in the doctor’s common room of a hospital, complete with a huge first-floor picture window and opening window seat. The convoluted plot involves Dr Mortimer, who is hoping for a knighthood in the forthcoming New Year Honours, suddenly finding out that he has an eighteen-year-old son by a former nurse, who is in the hospital trying to find him. Mortimer has two choices and, as in all farces, makes the wrong choice, and continues to do so as the plot becomes more manic. The playwright’s art is that he is clever enough to take the audience with him, however unbelievable the play maybe when you think of it afterwards!
Steven Pinder is totally believable in the role of hapless Dr Mortimer, and more than worthy to be included in a list of actors who made their name in farce, such as Brian Rix, Tom Walls, Robertson Hare, Royce Mills, and Ray Cooney himself. He has the energy to continually push the play on and, by taking himself very seriously, is VERY funny and eminently watchable.
He is joined by equally funny James Bradshaw as Dr Bonney, the one that ends up, as in all British farces, minus trousers! They make a perfect double act, sparring off each other gleefully and with a great deal of physical energy.
In a farce set in a hospital, there has to be a matron (in fact, Spoiler Alert, three in this one), and she is stoutly played by Elizabeth Elvin, even if some of the non-PC language has been changed for this production! Elvin is perfect in role and, again, most amusing, especially in the exterior scene!
The whole ensemble cast of ten impresses with their sense of style and their willingness to take every situation with gravity, no matter how hilarious it is! In particular, Iain Stuart Robertson makes the most of his few lines, many of which are the same, and Francis Redfern proves that younger actors can also immerse themselves in that elusive style that a play such as It Runs In the Family needs.
Ron Aldridge, who acted in the original West End production of Run For Your Wife, directs, and obviously knows how this play needs to go: no time for subtlety, get as many laughs as you can!
Alex Marker’s set is very actor-friendly with several doors and windows for exits and entrances, and Graham Weymouth’s ‘sunny’ lighting is just right for this play. Natalie Titchener’s apt and often inventive costumes are the icing on the cake!
I think that It Runs In the Family is bound to be in my top ten plays of 2025: of its type, it is one of the best. At The Mill at Sonning, it is a superb production – looking at the audience as they got up to leave after the curtain call, all were smiling broadly: it leaves one with that indefinable feel-good feeling. Very highly recommended!! ( And there’s also the excellent meal beforehand included in the ticket price!)
Review by John Groves
Show Information:
Dr. David Mortimore, renowned neurologist, is about to deliver the most important lecture of his life. A knighthood is certainly within reach! When into his hospital sanctuary comes Jane Tate – ex-nurse and ex-girlfriend – with shocking news as to why she departed so hastily 16 years and nine months ago. Not only is Dr. Mortimore the father of her son Leslie, but the strapping teenager is now in reception baying to see his long lost parent!
Trying to hold both his career and marriage together, there is only one solution for Dr. Mortimore – send for the faithful friend Dr. Bonney. What ensues is a dangerous web of expanding lies and manic cover-ups involving a Police Sergeant, Dr. Mortimore’s wife, a severe hospital Matron and Dr. Bonney’s mother. It Runs in the Family is farce at its finest, spinning deliriously out of control.
James Bradshaw (Dr Hubert Bonney) is best known as ‘Dr Max DeBryn’ in nine series of ITV’s Endeavour. Theatre credits include: Frozen (Greenwich Theatre), The Way Old Friends Do (director Mark Gatiss, Park Theatre and UK Tour), Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Theatre Royal Haymarket).
Eric Carte (Sir Willoughby Drake) previously appeared at The Mill at Sonning in It’s Her Turn Now, My Fair Lady, Funny Money and Spider’s Web.
Oscar Cleaver (Dr Mike Connolly) previously appeared at The Mill at Sonning as Lawrence in Calendar Girls. TV credits include Genius: Einstein, starring Geoffrey Rush (Prime Video) and A Very British Sex Scandal (C4).
Elizabeth Elvin (Matron) has been in over 30 productions at The Mill at Sonning including Calendar Girls, Still Life, We’ll Always Have Paris, High Society, Born Yesterday and Stepping Out. Her West End credits include The Mousetrap, The Bells (opposite Steven Berkoff, Hello, Dolly! and A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (with the legendary Frankie Howerd).
Rachel Fielding (Rosemary Mortimore) played the mother of a profoundly deaf child in the Oscar-winning film, The Silent Child. At The Mill she appeared in Father of the Bride, Love Loss and What I Wore, Relatively Speaking, Barefoot in the Park and most recently Calendar Girls.
Natasha Gray (Jane Tate) is best known as Elsa Chappell in ITV’s Emmerdale. She previously appeared at The Mill at Sonning in Funny Money in 2022
Steven Pinder (Dr David Mortimore) is best known for playing Max Farnham in Channel 4’s Brookside from 1990 until the show ended in 2003. He most recently played Doctor Dillamond in Wicked in the West End. He previously appeared at The Mill at Sonning in Calendar Girls, Funny Money, Two Into One, Who’s Under Where?, Father of the Bride, Scared To Death and The Sound of Murder.
Francis Redfern (Leslie) was see as Ralf Wile in The Creature by Ciaran McConville (Rose Theatre Kingston), Bancu – Voice and Head Puppeteer – in The Snow Queen by Ciaran McConville (Rose Theatre Kingston).
Iain Stuart Robertson (Bill) was Gandalf in The Hobbit (UK tour), Mozart in Amadeus, Oberon in The Dream, Abel in the Award winning Tom’s Midnight Garden (New Victory Theatre, New York).
Titus Rowe (Police Sergeant) was Lawrence in Eugenius the Musical (The Other Palace), Alfred Tubbe in Dry Rot (Richmond Theatre and UK Tour), Officer Ward in Annie (UK tour).
Creative Team:
Director Ron Aldridge
Set Designer Alex Marker
Costume Designer Natalie Titchener
Lighting Designer Graham Weymouth
Lead Image: It Runs in the Family: Natasha Gray, Francis Redfern and James Bradshaw. Photo Carla Joy Evans.