Legal Fictions
Savoy
Baby Girl; The Miracle
Cottesloe
Edward Fox is having the time of his life. The creepy but compelling Jackal has evolved, late in his career, into a specialist light comedian. He’s seriously funny playing the lead roles in a double bill of John Mortimer plays, one from the 1980s, one from the 1950s, which have proved surprisingly resistant to the passage of time. The Dock Brief still functions beautifully even though its premise now requires explanation. Before legal aid was introduced, barristers were selected at random to represent defendants who lacked funds for lawyers. An alleged wife-murderer, Fowle, is ready to plead guilty but his fastidious last-minute advocate Morgenhall demands that for propriety’s sake he construct a false defence. So the killer, being a nice sort of chap, agrees. This pleasing comic inversion sets both men off on a legal fantasy that culminates in a clever and completely unexpected twist.
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