Synopsis Narrated by the character of the Son, this extraordinary and intensely personal drama has at its heart a most curious father-son relationship, one which cast its shadow (sometimes protective, sometimes stifling) across the author's life.
Derek Jacobi plays the author’s father in a new production of John Mortimer’s 1970 play A Voyage Round My Father at the Donmar Warehouse (See News, 5 May 2006), which opened last night (Tuesday 13 June 2006, previews from 8 June). The autobiographical piece charts the relationship between a man and his blind barrister father who refuses to acknowledge his disability.
First night critics enjoyed reminiscing about the stereotypically old-school English gentleman portrayed by Jacobi, and felt that the scenes, although episodic, joined to create a touching picture of family life.
Michael Coveney on Whatsonstage.com - “You can hardly move for people writing memoirs about their fathers these days, but one of the first, and one of the best, was John Mortimer’s A Voyage Round My Father, affectionately revived by Thea Sharrock... Derek Jacobi gives a captivating, unsentimental performance as the old boy, straight as a ramrod, mixing his cross-examination in the divorce court with a piquant evocation of his own performance as Richard II. Shakespeare quotation was a second tongue in the Mortimer household and Jacobi makes the transitions seamless... Sharrock’s production – simply designed by Robert Jones, with a sunlit border of flowery luxuriance - gives each episode its full weight and flavour without apology for theatrical bittiness…. Finally, though, the play belongs to ‘Father’ and the sight (and sound) of Jacobi belting out his own cantankerous version of ‘Pretty Polly Perkins of Paddington Green’ as a defiant counterpoint to the school hymn will be an abiding memory of an innocent, enjoyably nostalgic evening.”
Benedict Nightingale in The Times - “Thirty-five years ago, when Voyage first appeared, it was as if he (Mortimer) was publishing his autobiography onstage. And a thoroughly entertaining autobiography it was and is, thanks to the title character, a blind barrister played in 1971 by Alec Guinness and now by a white-haired Derek Jacobi… Jacobi certainly catches Father’s infectious sense of mischief, wayward exhibitionism and almost aggressive facetiousness. But note the play’s title. This is a voyage round a man who remains elusive, not a voyage to his centre. Maybe Old Mortimer’s flippancy was defensive, a way of preserving his privacy. Maybe it was his response to a world he thought essentially absurd. Or maybe it was a sign that he had no centre at all. The play leaves us guessing and manages to stay funny and intelligent in the process… And you can’t miss the touching truth: Voyage Round My Father is a confession of posthumous love.”
Michael Billington in the Guardian - “Deftly, Mortimer takes us through his early years introducing us to a set of bizarre neo-Dickensian figures…. But it is, of course, the writer's father who is the largest character of them all; and the chief pleasure of Thea Sharrock's revival lies in watching Derek Jacobi explore the old man's intransigent selfhood… Jacobi brings out his peppery brusqueness… at his imposing best when he enters the law courts which he treats as a stage he can effortlessly dominate: the old man, he makes you realise, was an actor in all but name… Although the evening has a faintly discursive quality, it is well played by Dominic Rowan as the exploratory narrator, Joanna David as his heroically self-denying mother and Christopher Benjamin as a comically euphemistic headmaster. What you get, in the end, is not just a voyage round John Mortimer's father but also a highly revealing journey into the author's own interior.”
Nicholas de Jongh in the Evening Standard - “John Mortimer is one of those rare writers who has perfected the art of autobiographical reminiscence for the stage” and Voyage “has improved with time. Thea Sharrock's beautifully pitched and acted production captures a lost England of prep-school masters recommending cold showers for hot thoughts, small boys warned that life cannot be faced without the ability to fox-trot and the adult Mortimer immersed in World War II patriotic movie-making… It speaks to me like a personally delivered letter. I watched in a haze of moist eyes and amusement… The actors catch the right period mood. Christopher Benjamin is sheer comic bliss as the headmaster who issues coded warnings on schoolboy masturbation and Joanna David makes a fine, sacrificial mother. Sir Derek, looking rather like EM Forster, powerfully conveys the father's irascibility and theatricality… Sir Derek's theatricality may sometimes be of a too extravagant and emphatic kind, yet Mortimer's Voyage still remains an unmissable comic trip.”
NOTE: This review dates from June 2006 and this production's original run at the Donmar Warehouse.
You can hardly move for people writing memoirs about their fathers these days, but one of the first, and one of the best, was John Mortimer’s A Voyage Round My Father, affectionately revived by Thea Sharrock at the Donmar Warehouse.
Mortimer’s account of his growing up literally in the shadow of his blind barrister father and his garden trees has been a constant cottage industry for the author. It was a radio play as early as 1963, then a television play, and a stage play at Greenwich in 1970 with Mark Dignam, a much underrated actor, memorably magniloquent and irascible in the main role.
Alec Guinness made the part his own in the West End in 1971, silkily self-contained and poetic, and in 1982 Laurence Olivier thundered opposite Alan Bates as the filial narrator in a second television version, playing one of the two deathbed scenes Mortimer wrote for him (the other was in his adaptation of Brideshead Revisited) and delivering the line “I’m always angry when I’m dying” as if it was a regretful complaint.
At the Donmar, Derek Jacobi gives a captivating, unsentimental performance as the old boy, straight as a ramrod, mixing his cross-examination in the divorce court with a piquant evocation of his own performance as Richard II. Shakespeare quotation was a second tongue in the Mortimer household and Jacobi makes the transitions seamless.
The play is an accumulation of scenes rather than a dramatic evolution, and Sharrock’s production – simply designed by Robert Jones, with a sunlit border of flowery luxuriance - gives each episode its full weight and flavour without apology for theatrical bittiness. Thus Christopher Benjamin’s bellowing headmaster, who sees depravity in a slice of cake, seems to create a wealth of schooldays in a single speech, and Katie Warren and Sadie Shimmin as two Sapphic bookshop keepers are vividly realised visions of a world elsewhere.
All the memories are conjured by the active imagination of Dominic Rowan’s quietly astonished young Mortimer, listed only as “Son,” with Joanna David as the forbearing “Mother” and Edward Jackson Keen (one of three boy actors) as the “Son(Child).”
Scenes of domesticity, employment in the film studios during the war, and the balancing act of complementary careers at the bar and in the study all conspire to give a picture of quintessential Englishness that must now strike an audience as one of untroubled privilege.
Mortimer even relates the detail of his own first marriage to the novelist Penelope Mortimer, who joined him in full flow at the typewriter with a readymade family of four children. This character, Elizabeth, is played with beautiful poise and precision by Natasha Little in a series of stunning silk frocks.
Finally, though, the play belongs to “Father” and the sight (and sound) of Jacobi belting out his own cantankerous version of “Pretty Polly Perkins of Paddington Green” as a defiant counterpoint to the school hymn will be an abiding memory of an innocent, enjoyably nostalgic evening.
I missed the productions, all those years ago, with Guiness and Redgrave and even Olivier's one on TV. I had heard such good things about it and I love Mortimer's brilliant irreverent comedy that I was anxious not to miss this. I was not disappointed. Jacobi was triumphant as Mortimer's cantankerous father who clearly shaped "the boy". Amongst the wonderful comic moments, in particular Christopher Benjamin's headmaster teaching the boys the facts of life by reducing the subject to "unsolicited....cake!", it has deeply moving moments as when Joanna David, touchingly playing the long suffering wife,is listening to yet another of her husband's rants with all the burden of her love for him etched upon her face. The other players are all excellent including the two boys who were on the night I saw it - Charlie Bollands and Jolyon Price. It is a four star play with five star performances. - 195.93.21.104)
23 Jul 06
It's a showcase for a "lion in winter" performance, which Derek Jacobi obligingly provides, but it's not much of a play. Dominic Rowan sinks into blandness as the son. - 71.130.57.216)
21 Jul 06
This survives the transfer from small screen surprisingly well, retaining all of its charm and poignancy. It's not a great play, but it is an interesting insight into a fascinating family and it is often very funny. Derek Jacobi is of course superb, but he gets great support from a surprisingly large ensemble, particularly Dominic Rowan and Natasha Little as son & daugther-in-law. When the lights go up on what was a plain, dark set, you are transformed into a country garden by such a simple yet effective design. Thea Sharrock's staging makes excellent use of the Donmar space. A charming, undemanding evening. - 86.130.206.83)
11 Jul 06
Worst thing I've seen at the Donmar ever! It's well acted and directed, but the play has no interest at all (maybe it has something for Mr. Mortimer and his family, but not for me). I've been many times at the Donmar, and I always like what I see there, and even the most controversial plays (recently, the Shepard and Ravenhill ones, which I like) have a good reason to be programmed, but what's the point in this one? - 82.111.155.34)
18 Jun 06
Another Rolls Royce production from the Donmar. Wouldn't be at all suprised if this transfers somewhere bigger, marrying as it does those two darlings of middle England, John Mortimer and Derek Jacobi. Thea Sharrock's perfectly pitched production is warm, gentle, funny and touching. For my money I'd've liked a little more dramatic conflict, but really this is Mortimer eulogising his wonderfully eccentric father at length. The dialogue is terrific, some of it is screamingly funny, and Jacobi is at the top of his game, truly magnificent. Lovely support from Dominic Rowan (as the son), Joanna David, Natasha Little and Christopher Benjamin. - 195.82.123.181)
Re-opened in 1992. Seats 254. 1999 - Ambassador Theatre Group takes over from the Associated Capital Theatres as the landlord of the Donmar Warehouse. 2002 - Michael Grandage succeeds Sam Mendes as Artistic Director of the Donmar. Nick Frankfort succeeds Caro Newling as Executive Producer.
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