HOW do you deal with a sudden personal disaster that removes every certainty which previously guided your life?

When author John Mortimer was still a boy his father, a noted divorce lawyer, was struck blind in a freak accident.

He determined to ignore the condition and continue his life as normally as possible. Naturally this put an enormous strain on those closest to him.

But this play is not a tragic drama.

The younger Mortimer, always referred to as Son, narrates his father's story with compassion and truth, a great deal of humour, and no sign of bitterness.

Events cover some 20 years, with dozens of characters.

This episodic kind of play presents special challenges for the director, who must ensure the sequences flow cohesively, and that the pace varies in sync with the rhythm of events without sagging.

In an imaginative setting by Nicola Carter, Niall Clinton handles this with consummate skill. And he elicits a mesmerising portrait of the blind man from Trevor Hampton, who switches moods at the quiver of an eyelid.

Though he sometimes flirts with a dangerously ponderous delivery, he creates a portrait of an obstinate, infuriating, eccentric, yet admirable and essentially lovable man – and does much to control the speed and comedy of the play.

But the director does not allow him to overbalance the production.

As essentially the narrator, the role of Mortimer junior could simply be to drone out the sequence of events.

Noel Preston-Jones avoids this, sparking against his father when necessary, and unperceptively developing the relationship between the two men until his deep feelings are revealed at the end of the play.

Great demands are made of Doreen Sutton too, as the senior Mortimer's wife. Long suffering, she exudes understanding in the face of extreme provocation, and subtly reinforces the impression of her husband's infirmity in innumerable ways.

Among the supporting roles there are many telling performances, including Helen Scott as Son's wife, George Sutton as a Headmaster who does irreparable damage to education, and the charming trio of children, Emily Harry, Daniel Teague and Elliot Reed.

But this is also an ensemble piece, which gains momentum and strength from its many facets.