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Hypnotic state of Mortimer
MORTIMER’S MISCELLANY
King’s Head
HYPNOTHERAPISTS undertake most of their work in what is called the hypnagogic state.
This is the pleasant dreamlike feeling most commonly experienced waking up early in the morning and half dozing off to sleep again.
It is this sensation which best describes spending two hours in the company of Sir John Mortimer, essentially the aural equivalent of necking a couple of valium and a double brandy.
The poster for Mortimer’s Miscellany blithely describes the former QC, celebrated author and creator of Rumpole as a “raconteur” – an affront to the likes of Peter Ustinov.
“Charming old chap who chats a bit” is a more apt strapline.
What makes it worse is that Sir John is a supremely intelligent, entirely pleasant and witty character, but his anecdote-based show is excruciatingly strung out with poetry readings and piano interludes.
His wheelchair was flanked by Nicola MacAuliffe and Lucy Fleming, two highly competent actresses who brought to life passages from Auden and Byron for their part in this geriatric variety show.
The legal anecdotes were entertaining, although one felt much like a witness under cross-examination – talked at rather than engaged.
Sir John, 83, spoke fondly of his time at Harrow school, where the once “one-boy communist cell” has now grown into a “middle-of-the-road liberal anarchist”.
His tales of bungling criminals, his blind and deaf father – a leading divorce lawyer of his day – and out-of-touch judges provided some of the more entertaining moments.
One old beak apparently left a 350-page judgement at his cottage in Wales.
When a young barrister suggested: “Fax it up m’lord,” he replied: “Yes, it does rather.”
By the final whistle, this reviewer was praying: “Please take me, Lord,” only to discover that the whole thing hadn’t been some ghastly family Christmas nightmare where he had been trapped in an epic one-way conversation with great uncle John.
Until Feb 25
020 7226 1916
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