A Voyage Round My Father unfolds through a series of interconnected episodes, guided by a reflective narrator who seamlessly bridges past and present. As a memory play, it invites the audience to journey through recollections and participate in retrospective actions spanning numerous years. Despite its expansive timeframe, the narrative remains cohesive, thanks to the narrator's distinctive viewpoint and the chronological flow of events.

Memory Plays in Theatrical Tradition

Memory plays like A Voyage Round My Father are more often seen in American theater than on the English stage. Iconic examples include Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie and Robert Anderson’s I Never Sang for My Father. These American works, while rooted in autobiographical elements, are heavily stylized products of their creators' imaginations. In contrast, John Mortimer’s play is a thinly veiled autobiography, presenting itself as a personal essay in dramatic form. While Mortimer made minor adaptations for the stage, the events closely mirror those documented in his autobiography, Clinging to the Wreckage: A Part of Life (1982).

In Mortimer's work, the characters remain unnamed, yet they vividly portray the Mortimer family through the playwright's lens. Unlike universal Everyman figures, they are distinct individuals defined by personal history and specific traits.

Staging and Dramatic Devices

The staging of A Voyage Round My Father is not bound by strict realism. The play's fluid narrative, where episodes effortlessly transition, calls for a minimalistic stage design. Mortimer’s text suggests a spartan set featuring a table, a few chairs, and a bench, complemented by simple elements like foliage to evoke a garden setting. Flowerpots perched on sticks serve as whimsical earwig traps, highlighting Mortimer's father's peculiar fixations.

Lighting plays a crucial role in conveying shifts in location and time, subtly guided by the narrator's perspective. The beginning of the second act exemplifies Mortimer’s innovative staging—here, a backdrop projection illustrates a sky, radar installation, and observation post. This creative blend of make-believe and reality is further enriched by the presence of theater personnel doubling as film crew onstage.

Music as Temporal Marker

Music serves a pivotal function in establishing the play's temporal and emotional landscapes. The second act opens with a character singing an irreverent song, a device that recurs through the father's sporadic singing or radio music punctuating scenes. Mortimer once noted the efficacy of music in instantly capturing a period or mood, a technique he employs not only here but also in other works like the stage play Collaborators and the television serial Paradise Postponed.

These artistic choices demonstrate Mortimer’s adeptness at weaving personal narrative with theatrical innovation, crafting a play that resonates with both familiarity and novelty. His distinctive approach to storytelling, coupled with strategic use of staging and sound, creates a rich tapestry that is at once personal and universally engaging.