Previous versions of John Mortimer’s autobiographical play, A Voyage Round My Father, have seen heavyweight thespians Laurence Olivier, Alec Guinness and Derek Jacobi taking on the role of Mortimer’s parent - the father of the title. 

This touring production finds Rupert Everett in the part, playing opposite Jack Bardoe in a coming-of-age play that calls to mind a version of England that is fast fading from memory. 

Novelist, playwright & barrister Mortimer is best known for his creation of Horace Rumpole, the man of law at the centre of long-running television series Rumpole Of The Bailey (1978 -1992). Mortimer’s father, himself a barrister, provided some of the inspiration for the character. 

The play opens in the 1920s and traces the son’s delicate relationship with his eccentric, irascible, egotistical and often unkind parent. When blinded by a freak accident, Father stubbornly declines to acknowledge his disability, making nighttime visits to his garden to dispose of the earwigs - even though he can’t see them - that lurk among the dahlias. He is supported throughout by dutiful, loyal and long-suffering wife Doris (Eleanor David) and continues to work as a barrister.

Father may be brilliant academically, but he has no idea how to connect emotionally with his dutiful son (Bardoe), or anyone else for that matter. He fails to show interest in, or affection for, anything other than his beloved garden, a fact which leaves his son having to deal with conflicting feelings about their relationship. It also makes Young Mortimer determined to be a man very different to his father when he grows up.

Time moves forward, and the boy is sent away to be educated, encountering the absurdities of English public-school life. His bumbling and waffling headteacher (Julian Wadham) brings real humour to proceedings. The head’s attempts to discuss sex education with a class of pre-pubescent schoolboys - which amounts to advising them to take cold baths or go for a run whenever they “feel the urge” - brought plenty of gentle laughter from last night’s audience.

Indeed, humour is at the heart of this show. Everett’s portrayal of Father - as a domineering man with acerbic one-liners and no shortage of put-downs, interspersed with quotes from the classics, the Bible, and snatches of the popular music-hall song Pretty Little Polly Perkins - also prompted audience laughter at various points.

Young Mortimer aspires to be a writer but is persuaded by his father to follow his footsteps into law. He eventually meets and marries Elizabeth (Allegra Marland). Over time, however - and despite his youthful promises to himself - he gradually adopts Father’s behaviours and mannerisms, leading an increasingly fraught and frustrated Elizabeth to accuse him of becoming more like his parent with every passing day...

As last night’s performance progressed, I was surprised to find myself warming to Father. Although a non-conformist with many extremely annoying failings, he is also a brave and inspiring man. In a particularly touching scene, he displays a vulnerability that pulls at the heartstrings. When Elizabeth questions the merit of his spending time in the garden, given that he can’t see, he asks her to walk with him and “be his eyes”, something which previously he has allowed only his wife and son to be. His request, an opening of his heart towards Elizabeth, displays a softer, gentler, more engaging side of this often-curmudgeonly man. His daughter-in-law’s subsequent description of what she sees in his garden paints a picture in Father’s mind’s-eye that brings the flora & fauna vividly to life for him. 

This latest production of A Voyage Round My Father - directed by five-time Olivier Award winner Sir Richard Eyre, a personal friend of John Mortimer - has many merits and is extremely well acted. A warm and nostalgic imagining of a bygone era, it is replete with quaint, poignant and endearing moments. Understandably and inevitably it seems more than a little removed from life in the 2020s, but there’s nevertheless plenty that will chime with many a modern-day viewer, not least the impact of losing a parent and recollections both good and bad of growing up. 

This was an entertaining, enthralling and emotional night at the theatre.

Four stars

Reviewed by Sue Hull on Tuesday 31 October at Malvern Theatres, where it shows until Saturday (4 November)