Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Evelyn Hoskins, Bill Champion, Clare Burt, Terence Keeley, Marjorie Yates, Rachel Lumberg.

Everybody has a family somewhere, even if it is one of their own making. They are loved, loathed, loved and despised in equal measure, they are the insanity that makes us smile, they are the thread that makes us weep; a family is there to keep us grounded, whilst allowing us the freedom to believe we can fly. Somehow Tim Firth, the man with the Laughing Cavalier pen attached to his enormous soul, has created a play of great artistry and comic value that reflects all of this in This Is My Family.

Whether you are the prized apple in a bowl full of nuts or the black sheep that sits and wonders if in actual fact you were adopted at birth and placed within a family unit designed to make Bedlam seem like a great place for a rest, This Is My Family that truly is designed for all, especially when it comes to communication, or the distinct lack of it.

Tension and conflict, pain, misery, the overwhelming abundance of laughter, even in places where the audience might catch themselves thinking as the tears of joyful rememberance spin down their cheeks that they shouldn’t laugh at the teenage grunts that passes for the English language or the 40s mid-life crisis in which a man perhaps realises that life has got away from him, all is on show and the heart never stops appreciating it.

This Is My Family sees Nicky, played with sincere source of pleasure throughout by Evelyn Hoskins, write a fictional account of her family and win a prize in which she can take her relatives to anywhere in the world on a holiday, Rio, the sun kissed beaches of Greece or the intellectual and cultural aspirations of France are all soon dismissed by Nicky for something much more uplifting and bonding, even having her moody brother, played by the superb and vocally dynamic Terence Keeley, become someone who is her ally once again.

Tim Firth knows how to capture with seemingly effortless guile the essence of a situation and take it on its natural journey without ever over complicating the plot; he makes the ordinary, extraordinary, whilst never once deviating from the commonplace. In all his writing, whether it be All Quiet on the Preston Front, the beautiful Calendar Girls or the brilliant The Flint Street Nativity, it is the sheer believability of the situation that guides it along and brings the resolution sharply into focus. This is no different for This Is My Family in which the writing is king and the musical lyrics involved have that special glow about them.

A play in which to settle down and spot every member of your own family within the unrestricted imagination of Tim Firth’s quality writing and tremendous portrayals of all actors involved.

Ian D. Hall