Design by Gill Taylor Photos by Jeannette Tucker & Gill Taylor
Cast
Father - Oliver Clement
Son - Matthew Pert
Mother - Liz Braithwaite
Elizabeth - Shahrzad Nouraini
Ham/Mr Morrow/Doctor - Ben Wille
Headmaster/Boustead/Sparks - Mo Wootten
Film Director/Ensemble - Stuart Clark
Japhet/Judge/Ensemble - Vaughan Thomas
Mr Thong/George/Ensemble - Mike Withnall
Ringer Lean/Ensemble - Gerald Fitzpatrick
Cameraman/Ensemble/Judge - Kevin Byrne
Witness/Ensemble - Jackie Withnall
Miss Cox/Doris - Salley Rear
Miss Baker/ATS - Lindsay Morrison
ATS/Miss Ferguson/Ensemble - Rachel Peter
Mrs Reigate/Ensemble - LJ Hickerton
Son as a Boy/Second Boy - Kai Holland
Reigate/First Boy - Harvey Saunders
Iris/Girl - Lucy Dodd
Production Team
Director - Gill Taylor
Producer - Lesley Winterflood
Stage Manager/Set Design - Rachel Narborough
Sound - Peter Raggett
Lighting - Rob Benton, Katharina Alex,
Peter Raggett, Danny Mullings
Costumes - Victoria Bettelheim
Make-up - Jeannette Tucker
Set construction - Stephen Cahill-Hayes, the cast
Music - Robin Kimber
Front of House Managers - Jenny Moorby, Richard Penney
"My father was blind but we never mentioned it."
A funny and poignant autobiographical play by John Mortimer (creator of Rumpole of the Bailey) about growing up in the shadow of his blind and eccentric father. Mortimer senior was a renowned divorce barrister whose tea-time conversation could be expected to take in music hall songs, adultery, evolution, the ridiculous inconvenience of sex, Shakespeare, the importance of avoiding the temptation to do anything heroic in wartime, and the nightly ritual of drowning the earwigs that plague the garden he tends but cannot see. As well as introducing us to a gallery of memorable and often hilarious characters, the play offers a delicate exploration of the relationship between fathers and sons.
First performed in 1971 with Alec Guinness and Jeremy Brett as the father and son, the play was also filmed by the BBC with Laurence Olivier and Alan Bates and revived by the Donmar in 2006 with Derek Jacobi.
