All the world's a stage; a court-room is not a sufficient substitute
John Mortimer followed his father into the law but he called it "an uneasy affair" and was rebuked by a judge after he congratulated an Old Bailey jury for having sat through the most boring case of the year. In his summing up the judge said: "The sole purpose of the criminal law is not to amuse Mr. Mortimer."
Suitably abashed but not defeated Mortimer continued in the day job but gently invaded the field of drama, at first for BBC radio. His first play was The Dock Brief (1958). A great radio success it was expanded for TV and then, as a one-act play, for the stage. It was inevitably (but justifiably) in the GWT programme in 1960 because GWT founder-member John Measures, a fellow lawyer, was a great admirer. Mortimer (left) used a situation from his experience of the law in pairing an unsuccessful barrister with an equally unsuccessful criminal who, before the days of legal aid, could pick any of the barristers waiting for work in the court because their engagement books were less than full.
Most famous as the creator of the lawyer Rumpole of the Bailey (he is proud that there are Rumpole societies in America), he has written in a variety of genres, including novels, short stories, stage plays and scripts for film and television, as well as memoirs. His long and high-profile parallel career as a barrister has involved him in a number of celebrated cases, acting for the defence, for example, in the Oz obscenity trial in the 1960s and the Gay News blasphemy trial in the 70s. In 2003, Mortimer was the subject of a BBC television tribute, marking his 80th birthday, in which Jeremy Paxman declared that, "He stands, whether you like it or not, for freedom - freedom of expression."
"There are lots of similarities between being a writer and a lawyer," Mortimer says. "To tell a story to a jury, hold their attention, make them laugh, make them like you. But what makes being a barrister less satisfying than being a writer is, finally, that it's about what someone else wants you to say. Writers can say what they want, but the challenge of winning over an audience remains. The hardest thing is to write a play, because you have to hold their attention for two hours, and if you let them go for five minutes they're gone for good."
His autobiography Clinging to the Wreckage was published in 1982 and is a delightful read. A Voyage Round My Father focuses on his blind father, Clifford (played on TV by Laurence Olivier) and doesn't let the audience go for a minute.
BILL BRAY
A confession of posthumous love
Possibly his most famous play, and certainly one of the best things he has ever written, this is John Mortimer's wry, unsentimental portrait of his father, as well as the story of John's own childhood, coming of age, early legal career and emergence as a playwright. Full of comic incident and eccentric characters, A Voyage Round My Father is a spellbinding account of a son's relationship with his father, a blind divorce lawyer.
The Times critic wrote: 'The play ...is...funny and intelligent. You can see why John fell under the spell of this charismatic, cantankerous, affectionate old boy. You feel he's right when he criticises himself for being over-influenced by him. And you can't miss the touching truth: A Voyage Round My Father is a confession of posthumous love.'
Our revival of this extremely popular play (first presented at the GWT in 1988) has a very special feature: a real father and son partnership. Maurice Tripp and Martin Tripp - playing the father and son respectively. Martin we welcome back to the GWT stage after too long an absence. The Mortimer family is completed by Carol Gray as the mother and Claire Lewis-McClean as the daughter-in-law. The large ensemble cast includes some very young actors, including William Webster, Oliver Baldwin and Jade Hall, some well-known ones, including Graeme Horner, Aysev Ismail, Keith Dunn, Peter Gray, David Adams and Len Wooding, as well as some fairly new faces: Ellie Martin, Helen Dodds and Matthew Webb.
A Voyage Round My Father has universal appeal and will certainly get the 2008-09 season off to a most enjoyable and entertaining start.
(Director) LESLEY ROBINS |