Director Pat Murphy and Lake Forest's Citadel Theatre prescribe a dose of farce for holiday fun

Gerald "Pat" Murphy, who taught theatre at Glenbrook North High School for 34 years has long been a fan of farce - a specific type of comedy that features highly improbable situations, stereotyped characters, and extravagant exaggeration. Though people may be familiar with farces like or recent pieces like Lend Me a Tenor or A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Murphy found a British farce that would be new to local audiences and proposed it to Citadel to be their 2022 holiday show.

The play, It Runs in the Family, by Britain's leading playwright of farces Ray Cooney, is set in a London hospital three days before Christmas. It concerns Dr. David Mortimore, a married neurologist preparing to deliver a lecture to an international conference that he hopes will boost his career. In the midst of his preparations for this important event, he's interrupted by a former nurse with whom he once had an extramarital affair and now claims he's the father of her 18-year-old punk son. She arrives unexpectedly at the hospital with the boy who now wants to meet his biological father. To keep this past indiscretion from his wife, Dr. Mortimore pulls others into his deceptive plot and as Murphy explains it, "every lie the doctor tells, gets him in deeper trouble."

Murphy, over his extensive career as a director with professional companies as well as in education, has directed many farces and loves the challenge of directing them. He says "Farce is very physical. The cast is in nearly constant motion, so as a director I have to block the scenes very carefully and keep the pace quick and frenetic. Farce is often known for "doors opening and slamming shut,' and every time a door opens another problem begins. Everything has to be very tightly staged so that the tension and the humor build." Murphy is confident that Citadel's audiences are going to have a wonderful time seeing It Runs in the Family. "The script is so witty," he says. "The dialogue as well as the situations are very clever, and the intimacy of Citadel's theatre in the West Lake Forest High School campus will bring the audience into these crazy situations."

As much fun as the performances will be for audiences, Murphy has been having an equally great time in rehearsals because he is working with some past students who are now adult actors. David Whitlock, who plays a friend to the beleaguered Dr. Mortimore, is a former student, and Murphy says it's been great to see how he's continued to develop as an actor into his adult years. And speaking of things that "run in the family," Murphy has also taught and directed Whitlock's son. Whitlock, who lives in Northbrook, is one of several cast members from the area, some of whom Murphy has known for years. Cast members Tim Walsh and Aimee Kleiman also reside in Northbrook, and Ellen Phelps, who Murphy directed years ago in a production of Oliver!, graduated from Glenbrook South High School. "While I've always stayed connected with my former students, this production is like "old home week' for a lot of us.'

It Runs in the Family will play the Citadel Theatre, in the West Lake Forest High School campus at 300 S. Waukegan Road, Lake Forest, from November 16- December 18. Tickets and further information are available at www.citadeltheatre.org or by phone at 847-735-8554, ext. 1.