The Good Doctor

Director, Maria Plumb, chose this play after its success in an earlier production for this theatre.

The ‘good doctor’ is nineteenth century Russian author and physician Chekhov, whose nine short stories Simon adapted into a bouquet of vignettes for the amusement of his dedicated fans. And they are good funny-bone ticklers. The appropriate law says ‘you can’t copyright ideas’ so Simon broke no rules but probably earned more from these broad slapstick situations and cultural misadventures than Chekhov ever did. We are still laughing at human foibles of the 1890s while recognising ourselves in them more than a century later.

Leo Bradley’s costumes set the action firmly in Chekhov’s era.        

Connecting link to the pieces is The Writer who introduces each playlet and in so doing reveals snippets about his life as a writer (nothing much has changed there). Rod Thompson makes the most of this part.

Trevor Bond appears in all but two segments, requiring a broad band of comedy skills. He acquitted himself most memorably in “Surgery” and “The Arrangement”.

Christine Ross gave rein to her comedy skills in “The Governess” and “The Seduction”; Trish Pledger was cripplingly funny as The Woman in “A Defenceless Creature”; of Trevor Sammon’s multiple roles, he was at his best as Semyonych in “The Seduction” and as the Sailor in “The Drowned Man”; Shane Fell and Noelle Criminova grabbed their chance to shine in “The Arrangement” and “The Audition” respectively.

Jay McKee

Photographers: Nick Morrissey and Ian Colley Photography