It Runs In The Family on at The Grand Theatre reviewed by Steve Dunthorne

I TRIED really hard not to like this play.

Not out of malice, of course, but it just didn't feel like I should be laughing at this kind of farce -- it felt like the comedy of another age.

I tried really hard to be unimpressed by the ancient jokes, the predictable plotting, the overacting. Yet still, on more than one occasion, I found myself laughing out loud -- I'd have been rolling in the aisles if it hadn't been for the risk of falling off the dress circle balcony.

So much of it shouldn't have been funny -- and, in fairness, much of it wasn't -- but, at its best, it was laugh out loud hilarious.

Gout and piles are not funny. Matrons falling out of windows and men dressing up as women are, but aren't outstandingly original.

Cantankerous old men who think that their luck is in are quite witty -- at best.

Throw them all together (along with dodgy regional accents, horseplay on a fourth floor balcony and some fine gags) and you have the ingredients for a fine evening's entertainment.

The main flaw with this particular play -- as with so many farces -- is the 'if a joke works, don't be scared to use it again -- and again -- and again' mentality -- but don't let that put you off too much.

A special mention to Terry O'Sullivan, the undoubted star of a first rate cast.

His turn as a randy geriatric patients who thought all his Christmases and Birthdays had come at once absolutely stole the second act.

Jeffrey Holland -- best known as Hi-de-Hi's Spike -- held the play together as Dr David Mortimore, trying to juggle the pressures of suddenly discovering his secret son with the most important appointment of his professional career -- the lecture which could win him a coveted senior position and -- eventually -- a knighthood.

But there is no doubt that the Summer Rep season will find an audience. A well-attended Grand Theatre lapped it up.

The Grand hasn't held a rep season in 100 years -- back when most of the jokes heard on Tuesday night were quite new -- but this year's plays looks like being a big hit.