Forty eight hour shows are something of a tradition in Durham, trying to put on a show with only 2 days of rehearsal time – I can remember forty eight hour shows from Foot of the Hill, Feather and Phoenix theatre companies over the last few years I’ve been in Durham, but they have always been musicals. Director Ben Cawood broke away from this tradition of musicals to put on a farce in forty eight hours, the wonderful It Runs in the Family.

The play opens with Dr David Mortimore, played extraordinarily by Freddie Hagen, sat in the doctors’ common room in St Andrews’ Hospital preparing to give the Ponsonby Lecture. I cannot believe Freddie has never yet graced the stages of Durham Student Theatre with his incredible talent. Not only was he hilarious in his role as David, he also managed to hold together the production and stop it from completely derailing (although it did come close a few times).

One line in particular that stood out was Hagen’s perfectly sarcastic delivery of “It’s actually been quite a quiet morning”, which could not be further from the truth

His foil on stage was the unbelievably funny Alice Barr playing the role of Dr. Hubert Bonney. The excellent comedy of Alice’s interpretation came as slightly less of a shock, having seen her perform as part of the excellent Durham Revue, which I reviewed previously. That should in no way detract from the second half of the comedy leads, as her stage presence was exceptional.

Despite being the second most important Doctor, Hubert is not the second one to appear. That honour would go to Dr Mike Connolly, played excellently although unexpectedly by Josh Brooks, a late addition to the cast. If you think the rest of the cast had a hard time only having forty eight hours to rehearse, Josh only had about 3, being drafted in earlier on the day of the performances due to an unfortunate cast injury.

The farce then ensues as various other supporting characters blunder into the common room as Dr. Mortimore frantically rehearses his speech. These include Ben himself portraying Sir Willoughby Drake, a crotchety old man who also happens to be the very same who invited David to give the Ponsonby Lecture in the first place. Ellie Kinch playing David’s wife Rosemary and Ella Beresford playing the Matron also take to the stage.

Ben, once again, demonstrated in this production that he is a master of farces, and I look forward to what he achieves in the future with this flavour of comedy.

We get a very noticeable shift in character from Freddie when Hana Swaddling’s Jane Tate appears, who we quickly learn had a fling with David 19 years ago, despite him already at that point being married to Rosemary. It is from here that a chaotic web of lies unfurls as we learn of the presence of David’s illegitimate child, Leslie, at the same time he did. This unfaithfulness is initially covered up by claiming that Hubert was in fact the child’s father, while Jane is furious with this explanation all while David juggles preparing an important speech, hiding the truth of his illegitimate son from his son AND his wife, and avoiding more scandals surrounding the police and other minor characters.

Eventually we do meet Leslie, played excellently by Ace Kamran, who has been followed to the hospital by a police Sergeant after a spree of driving related crimes. I really do feel for Oscar Munday who played the Sergeant, as he was wearing a full police uniform in the insufferable heat of the Sir James Knott Hall, but this didn’t stop the truly excellent performance he gave.

The comedy that is derived from the web of lies that David Mortimore has told, resulting in a Mr Leslie, played wonderfully by Noah Benson, making an appearance due to these lies, or the Sister, Alysia Orbell’s character, showing up is simply excellent. Despite both having very minor roles in the play, Noah and Alysia were a sure-fire way of ensuring laughter from the audience. Alice Lim followed suit with some hilarious appearances in the second act.

Inevitably, when some improvisation was needed from the leads, this did not affect the flow or the narrative, as the audience was in hysterics already.”

An important part of the play too, was the elaborate staging, with doors both in and out of the common room, a huge window along the back (which did play an important part in the plot), and a closet in the corner, as well as a desk and a slightly wobbly hat stand. These came together through the genius of Stage Manager, Harry Naylor, assisted by Abi Barker and Lily Murfett. It was the perfect level of cluttered, while leaving enough space for absurdity to happen around it.

Image: Trevelyan College Musical Society