This Is My Family at Southwark Playhouse Elephant – review

A wholesome comfort watch, Tim Firth’s musical, directed by Vicky Featherstone, is a disarming if predictable portrait of a slightly ailing but ultimately loving family.

Thirteen-year-old Nicky (Nancy Allsop) has won a holiday in a competition to describe your “perfect family”. But while she’s expanded the truth a little – her sullen, grumbling Camden goth brother isn’t exactly the “white knight” she’s claimed – she really does believe in the romance of her parents’ union, together since they were 16.

Everyone’s hit a bit of a rocky patch, but Nicky’s going to save the day, and bring everyone back together on a camping holiday. Except, of course, it ends up a soggy mess.

British awkwardness, often lost in a big belting musical, is front and centre here, with songs used as expressive asides rather than a character having to actually talk about their feelings directly to one another, heaven forbid.

The title song’s opening phrase bears an unfortunate resemblance to the beginning of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, but Firth’s composition is by the by; it’s the lyrics that take centre stage, witty and revealing.

There are some very pleasing internal rhymes – “Tent instructions if your name is Steve/Are that you believe there are no instructions.” But Firth seems to largely do away with rhyming and it’s surprisingly refreshing. Sure, you’re less likely to leave humming the same two sentences all the way home, but it frees the script, and some might argue it’s a relief not having an earworm for a week.

Chloe Lamford’s design is achingly charming: what appears to be a pretty but basic wooden house exterior drops its walls after the opening number to reveal the whole kitchen set, with dad characteristically trying to hold the roof up.

The family members are all as you’d expect: Mum (Gemma Whelan) has been rolling her eyes so long it’s just her whites showing, dad (Michael Jibson) insists on doing all the DIY which means everything’s broken, teenage brother, Matt (Luke Lambert) is a mumbling sulk, newly single auntie Sian (Victoria Elliott) is on a journey of sexual-discovery, and gran (Gay Soper) is losing her marbles. There are no surprises here, but the casting is spot-on, everyone can sing but nobody’s showing off, and the script is very funny with an uplifting message just shy of saccharine.

That said, what was initially advertised as two hours (including an interval) has somehow snuck up to two and a half hours, and that feels 30 minutes too long to watch the inevitable unfold.