‘It Runs In The Family’ is a Farce  by Ray Cooney, the award winning Master of this genre. The play is set in the Doctors’ Common Room of a large hospital where, as in all the best farces, mayhem reigns and the laughter begins. 

Dr Mortimore is preparing to deliver a career-defining lecture in an international conference, which requires careful preparation and precise rehearsal. His rehearsals are immediately disrupted by the sudden appearance of an estranged lover complete with “baggage”! Various Christmas arrangements, a Policeman, a difficult matron and a touch of cross-dressing added to an assortment of nutcases running in and out of doors mistaking everybody for someone else makes for a great evening’s entertainment with laughter all round.

“My glasses steamed up with laughter…A must for the bruised in spirit and the young at heart.” – The Sunday Times

“Tickles the funny bones quite shamelessly.” – Sunday Express, London

“As in every good farce from Ben Travers to Joe Orton, the location becomes a madhouse filled with an epidemic of unbridled lunacy.” – London Financial Times

Dress rehearsal photographs courtesy of Ian M Butterfield are here

A flipbook version of the show programme is here

The “It Runs” poem by Tom Dawson is here