Hedgerow Theatre continues its popular summer tradition of staging a Ray Cooney farce with It Runs In The Family, July 6 through September 9. Performances will be on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 2:00 p.m. Andrew Chown and Penelope Reed share the directing duties. This will be the sixth consecutive summer Hedgerow will stage a comedy by this contemporary British playwright.

“If you're going to tell a lie, tell a whopper!” yells Dr. Mortimore as events begin to spin deliriously out of control in a London Hospital three days before Christmas. Dr. Mortimore will address fellow neurologists who have come from all over the globe to hear him speak. His talk will likely earn him a knighthood. As he struggles to write his speech, a nurse he worked with 19 years ago arrives with a shocking surprise. Mistaken identities, double entendres and puns promise to make this 1987 British farce another Philadelphia summer hit on the Hedgerow stage!

It Runs in the Family ran for 15 months in London's West End. Cooney's farces combine traditional British bawdiness with structural complications. Characters leap to assumptions and are forced to pretend to be things that they aren't, and often talk at cross-purposes to hilarious effect. Cooney created the Theatre of Comedy Company in 1983 and became its artistic director. Many of his plays are first developed at this theater, where he also performs.

Hedgerow Theater’s acclaimed productions of Cooney plays have been: Out Of Order (2006), Move Over Mrs. Markham (2005), Funny Money (2004) Caught In the Net (2003) and Run For Your Wife (2002).

The Hedgerow cast includes Zoran Kovcic and Susan Wefel (performing in their sixth annual Cooney), along with Hedgerow Theatre fellows Carlyn Miller, Giselle Chatelain, summer intern Erin Byrnes and ensemble members Spencer Gates, Maggie Flynn and Newton Buchanan. New to the Hedgerow stage are Charmaine Gates, Brian Gallagher and Brian Bolland. Also in featured in the cast is Jonny Long, a student of the Hedgerow Theatre School. All are looking forward to delighting audiences with a whirlwind laugh riot of swinging doors and monkey business set in a doctor's lounge.

Tickets are $22 for Thursday and Sunday performances; $25 on Friday and Saturday, with $3 discounts for seniors and $10 for age 18 and under. Special performances include a Christmas-themed meet-the-cast post show reception July 13 catered by Heaven on Earth.

For reservations or more information, call 610-565-4211 or visit www.hedgerowtheatre.org. Hedgerow Theatre is at 64 Rose Valley Road, Media, Pa.