Legal Fictions: The Dock Brief / Edwin

Two plays by John Mortimer - The Dock Brief and Edwin - presented under the title Legal Fictions in London starring Edward Fox.

"Christopher Morehan's production revels in Mortimers' wit and delightful sense of the absurb"
The Times

In John Mortimer's The Dock Brief, an incompetent barrister, Morganhall is asked to represent the lugubrious Mr Fowle who confesses to murdering his jovial wife. Although the two of them rehearse a masterly defence in the cell, when they reach the courtroom everything goes horribly wrong.

In John Mortimer's Edwin, retired High Court Judge, Fennimore Truscott can't break the habit of trying as many people as he can - in his imagination. But when he turns his overly suspicious mind towards his wife's friendship with the next door neighbour, he opens up a can of worms.

"Edward Fox throws himself into both parts with gusto" The Daily Express

Legal Fictions comes into London's West End following a regional tour (November 2007 to February 2008). This production is directed by Christopher Morahan.

"This double-bill is a great treat" The Daily Telegraph

John Mortimer was a highly highly successful barrister for almost forty years and was one of the country's best-known advocates for civil liberties and free speech. In Legal Fictions he brings his insider knowledge to these two hilarious plays of legal drama. The Dock Brief and Edwin use barbed wit and judicial humour to show that the law can make an ass of any of us.

"John Mortimer can't be beaten on lunacy and the legal system" The Times

For six decades John Mortimer has been one of Britain's most prolific and diverse writers and for almost forty years he was also a highly successful barrister and one of the country's best-known advocates for civil liberties and free speech. As a writer, John Mortimer is best known for Rumpole of the Bailey. His other credits include the television adaptation of Brideshead Revisited; the screenplay for Tea With Mussolini; and his autobiographical stage play A Voyage Round My Father which was also adapted for television.

The cast for Legal Fictions in London features Edward Fox, Nicholas Woodeson and Polly Adams. The production is directed by Christopher Morehan.

"Nicholas Woodesen provides a valuable foil to his partners' quirky individualism" The Guardian

"John Mortimer, himself a QC, has never been afraid of saying that the law is an ass, and lawyers frequently asinine. The Dock Brief provides diverting proof of both. But it's also irretrievably oldfashioned and shows both its age (it was written in 1957) and its origins (a radio play)... Edwin, which Mortimer wrote in 1982, again for radio, is much more colourful in every aspect, being set in an English country garden... Fox is priceless as the crusty old fogey, torturing vowels, strangling consonants, swilling words around his mouth as if they were vintage claret and peering at the modern world with a mixture of contempt and bewilderment from beneath eyebrows that should surely be Grade I listed." The Mail on Sunday

"Nicholas Woodeson shows lively versatility" The Daily Mail

"In its time, The Dock Brief made an impact as a satire of the legal system; but Morgenhall, the unsuccessful barrister who takes on the defence of a wife-killer, is a touch implausible today... The second play, Edwin, a later and more sophisticated piece... Edward Fox's performance is priceless: a crusty, palaeolithic beast, his nostrils still quivering for blood. Fox is becoming a national treasure now, like Mortimer and Alan Bennett." The Sunday Times