DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE

DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE

at the Civic Theatre

30.04.12

As a teenager, I sniggered over Richard Gordon's comic novel, and later enjoyed the Pinewood movie version. Now Simon Sparrow and his chums are touring the land in a broad farce, written by Richard Gordon and Ted Willis, and directed by Ian Talbot.

No hint of irony here, as the characters shout the lines and vie to out-play each other. There's a cod melodrama, a stalled seduction scene, but precious little medical banter, unless you count the hospital porter diagnosed half-undressed on the kitchen table.

Designer Paul Farnsworth has come up with a lovely set of student digs, where all the action takes place, so that Sir Lancelot [a dapper Robert Powell] and Matron [the formidable Gay Soper] are forced to slum it with the young medics. The large supporting cast included Peter Dunwell, excellent as the larger-than-life porter Bromley, and Rachel Baynton as the demure but determined Janet.

Sparrow [Phillip Langhorne] and his friend John [Tom Butcher] are rather eclipsed by Joe Pasquale's Grimsdyke. He draws the bits of plot together in hindsight, looking back from his Mayfair practice at his days at St Swithin's. The audience willingly suspended its disbelief, though as Joe admitted, accepting him as a doctor was "a big ask". But, miked up, mugging and ad-libbing, he did provide some of the biggest laughs of an undemanding evening's entertainment.