This Is My Family review – cuddly comedy on a soggy camping holiday

Southwark Playhouse Elephant, LondonTim Firth’s 2013 musical about domestic dysfunction and redemption seems a little twee by today’s standards but the songs and sentimental ending will still melt your heartTim Firth’s musical features a family meltdown on a soggy camping holiday. First premiering in 2013, its domestic fallouts might have been unconventional fare to set to song then. But it all seems rather soft and cuddly in its comedy now.Family members are slightly too recognisable in their traits: a middle-aged father (Michael Jibson) who has taken up free-running and never reads the instructions for his wonky DIY; a put-upon mother (Gemma Whelan) who senses her marriage has hit an iceberg; a bossy grandmother (Gay Soper) showing signs of dementia and a wacky aunt decked out in animal-print (Victoria Elliott) undergoing a mid-life sexual awakening. Continue reading...

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