Mary's Babies, Jermyn Street Theatre - ★★★★★ - Until April 13, 2019


"Reproductive issues"... the mind explodes in the moral minefield conjured up by those words. Who would expect a play that is both ethically subtle and laugh aloud funny. This is an absorbing look at the complicated questions raised by technology, but it is also a thoroughly enjoyable night in the theatre. Maud Drumgoole's play is a wonderful new work and the acting of Emma Fielding and Katy Stephens as they assume multiple roles is masterful. What happens to individuals and their relationships as they learn that they are the "products" of a fertility clinic and have multiple siblings? Their distress and their embracing of this news raises many fascinating dilemmas about privacy, kinship and what one really does want to know about one's past and one's future. All these complex questions are handled deftly and with delightful humour. In the end, there is a recognition that many of the issues raised by reproductive technology might be better addressed in the context that, in fact, we are all related. Indeed, the world might be a better place if we all saw in "strangers" our brothers and sisters. Don't miss "Mary's Babies."

Reviewed by J.C.
Photo by Robert Workman.
 Our Score:  ☆☆☆☆☆ 

Want to save on tickets? See our Tips page.

WHEN, WHERE, GETTING THERE:
Until Apr 13, 2019
Mon - Sat: 7:30pm, Sat: 3:30pm
The Jermyn Street Theatre
Nearest tube: Piccadilly Circus
https://www.jermynstreettheatre.co.uk/show/marys-babies
Map & Location: 16B Jermyn St, St. James's, London SW1Y 6ST, UK

Most Popular

Your Lie In April – The Musical in Concert ★★★★★ Theatre Royal Drury Lane | April 8 & 9, 2024

Image
Based on the popular Manga of Naoshi Arakawa, Your Lie In April – The Musical in Concert tells the story of a young, prize-winning pianist who has lost his ability to hear the piano after his mother's death. The passing of his perfectionist parent has led Kōsei, played by Zheng Xi Yong, to abandon his vocation and to sink into despair. Although supported by his friends, Ryōta and Tsubaki, it is not until the enthusiastic and free-spirited violinist, Kaori, comes along that he begins to rediscover his aptitude for music. This is a modest little love story that is unabashedly sentimental, but it has a magic that will melt even the hardest heart. Frank Wildhorn has written a lovely score and songs like "Just Like A Movie" and "One Hundred Thousand Million Stars" are instantly relatable. The in-concert version of the show exposed a few wrinkles that still need to be ironed out, but the simplicity of this presentation nicely complemented the unpretentious nature of
Full Details »

St. Martin in-the-fields: Lunchtime Concerts ★★★★ FREE

Image
Maybe the best musical value in London. The lunchtime concerts at St. Martin's are always a wonderful way to escape the hustle and bustle that is London and the sensory overload that is Trafalgar Square. This is a beautiful setting with great acoustics, and a church pew hard enough to make sure you don't nod off. Reviewed by J.C.  Our score:    ☆☆☆☆  WHEN, WHERE, GETTING THERE: Mon & Fri: 1 pm - 1:45 pm ( occasionally Tues & Thurs)  St. Martin in-the-fields, Trafalgar Square Nearest tube: Charing Cross https://www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/whats-on
Full Details »

Naked Boys Singing, The Garden Theatre at The Eagle - ★★★★ - Until October 25, 2020

Image
There is still a certain taboo around naked men on stage. Well, Naked Boys Singing firmly grasps the nettle and does exactly what it says on the tin. If the sight of naked guys singing and dancing is shocking for you, this musical revue should probably be avoided, but you'd be missing a lot of good clean fun. There is plenty of talent on display and the six guys perform splendidly; perhaps, one or two of the voices would be helped by microphones but the lack of costumes would make that difficult. So sing up boys! We're not watching 'great art' here, but several of the numbers stand out including "The Entertainer", "Robert Mitchum" and especially "Perky Little Porn Star." One hilarious song reminds a lonely man that the solution to his problem is in his own hands. There is also a beautifully sung chorale using the multifarious names for the male member! It would be invidious to single out individual cast members as all have plenty of opport
Full Details »

Sister Act – The Musical ★★★★ Dominion Theatre | Mar 15 - Aug 31, 2024

Image
The nun on the run is back in London! This is a show full of silliness and outrageous fun. A mobster's moll who's seen a murder hides out in a convent, and during her sojourn in witness protection, she transforms the nunnery while also gaining some new perspective on her own life. However, despite its spiritual setting, this isn't a show that leaves the audience asking existential questions. It's just a good old-fashioned, razzle-dazzle-em musical. The plot is thin, the characters familiar and the outcomes predictable, but that's all just fine if you get into the spirit of things. Beverley Knight is a delight as Deloris van Cartier the soul sister who brings the boogie to the cloister's choristers, and Ruth Jones is hilarious as the skeptical Mother Superior who finally catches the rhythm. We loved Knight's "Sister Act" and Jones' "I Haven't Got A Prayer" was a definite highlight. Lizzie Bea, as the postulant Sister Mary Robert,
Full Details »

Power of Sail – A Moral Thriller ★★★★ Menier Chocolate Factory | Mar 20 - May 12, 2024

Image
The bon mot that academic politics are so vicious precisely because the stakes are so small has various attributions, and its history of apparently being "borrowed" is not without some irony. Set in the context of a debate about free speech, Paul Grellong has written a piece that is less a moral thriller and more of a satire. It is really about the pettiness and lack of principle involved in navigating one's way through the choppy seas of academia. The play doesn't really do much to advance the debate about finding the line between hate speech and free speech, but it is a clinical dissection of the mendacity and petty ambition that infects the environment of those who are supposedly charged with exploring and refining that important distinction. Apparently under the rubric of free speech, Harvard professor Charles Nichols (Julian Ovenden) has invited a well-known white supremacist to participate in a panel at the university. The students are outraged and the dean is
Full Details »

Life with Oscar ★★★ Arcola Theatre | April 2 - 20, 2024

Image
Life with Oscar is less a play than it is a personal and professional exorcism. The show is an exposé of writer/actor Nick Cohen's origins, ambitions and encounter with the hollowness that is Hollywood. The piece chronicles three generations of Cohen's family and his experience trying to get a film made. As the child of immigrants who have left their roots to pursue success in a new world, the little golden statuette of Oscar comes to represent for Cohen the ultimate symbol of achievement, not simply in a film career but in life itself. In his narrative, Cohen plays an amazing 29 characters, and he manages to bring them all to life. From the bombastic father to the self-effacing mother, and from the sleazy producer to his drug-addled daughter, all the personalities emerge as recognisable individuals. However, while the performance is dazzling, none of the characters are really developed. They remain simply nicely sketched types. The story itself is familiar territory: a tormen
Full Details »

Police Cops: The Musical ★★★★★ Southwark Playhouse (Elephant) | Mar 1 - Apr 20, 2024

Image
Is it even possible to parody those over-the-top American cop programmes of the 1980s? This show sets out to spoof those inane police dramas and it succeeds quite brilliantly, while hilariously hitting lots of other targets along the way. American gun culture, racism and sexism are all the objects of some devastating shots. The action is non-stop and the jokes come thick and fast. There are lots of serious gymnastics, some quick-witted improvisation and a collection of very funny songs. And the story? Well, all the favourite tropes are here. Naïve young rookie cop, Jimmy Johnson, is paired with the jaded veteran detective, Harrison. The former has seen his sister murdered and is unable to express his love for schoolmate, Rosa. The latter has a secret in his past and drinks too much. Under the watchful eye of a go-by-the-book superior, the two undertake the pursuit of a Mexican druglord who is littering the stage with clues about his next nefarious plan. It is all sublimely silly and t
Full Details »

Opening Night ★★ Gielgud Theatre | Until July 27, 2024

Image
This is a play, based on a film, that is about the making of a play that is being filmed for a documentary and which suggests the audience's reality is also a construction. It is all very meta, but unfortunately, it is not very interesting. Opening Night , based on John Cassavetes' film of the same name, looks at the struggles of leading actress, Myrtle Gordon. The diva is horrified by the fact that she is aging, and she strives to reconnect with her past artistic inspiration which she identifies with her youth. When she sees a girl, who is a super fan, killed outside the theatre, Myrtle attempts to channel the adolescent's spirit in order to play a character for whom the star feels no affinity in a play for which she is only reluctantly rehearsing. No doubt fuelling Myrtle's aesthetic and existential despair is the fact that she drinks to excess. It is all quite sad, yet perhaps intentionally, not very engaging. All the layers of artifice and the one dimensional natur
Full Details »

Priscilla The Party! ★★★★ HERE at Outernet | Until September 29, 2024

Image
Priscilla is back! If you've seen the film and enjoyed the musical, now you can experience the party. The story is unchanged. Three Australian drag queens set out to do a show in Alice Springs. On their odyssey through the outback, there's some unsurprising prejudice, some unanticipated openness, unexpected secrets and an unforeseen love story. In this version the tale is narrated by the raucous and ribald Gaye Cliché (Trevor Ashley) who proves to be a tour guide par excellence. But this evening isn't really about story-telling. The aim is to immerse the audience in the wonderfully over-the-top world of our three sojourners, and the show succeeds with flying colours. It has an irresistible sing-along, sway-along score including classics like "It's Raining Men," "Go West," and "Born This Way." Set and scenery designers Brian Thomson and Justin Nardella have imaginatively used the space and video designs to create a wonderfully effervescent d
Full Details »

In Clay ★★★★★ Upstairs at the Gatehouse | Mar 13 - Apr 7, 2024

Image
Can you really make a musical about a woman throwing a pot? Well, if you're Rebecca Simmonds and Jack Miles you can ... and a very entertaining one as well! In Clay is based on the life of Marie-Berthe Cazin, a little known French ceramicist who was born in 1872 and died in 1971. Both she and her work have been largely overshadowed by her more famous father-in-law, Jean-Charles Cazin, and her husband, Michel Cazin. However, this polished and perceptive production puts the spotlight back on the often overlooked female artist working in an under-appreciated medium. It brings to life a woman whose creations were often misrepresented as being by her husband and who in this piece compares herself and her career to that of her more famous contemporary, Henrietta Tirman. This is a bijou production without the 76 trombones or all that jazz. It is a subtle and possibly self-reflective study exploring the artist's vocation while raising some fascinating questions about the reasons for c
Full Details »

The City Life Magazine | Reviews & Ratings