This was a thought-provoking and inspiring play – the smaller theatre provided a more modest context, but it was so suited to the occasion and provided just the right environment.
I absolutely loved the clear but simple setting: the washing on the line, the period costume, how we learned of the lives of the characters – all took us effortlessly back into a lost and bygone age. And despite this, there was the insertion of some modern music and humour too – but the whole thing gelled together so well. For a fairly simple set, the costume and staging really evoked the era.
Correspondingly, the four principal characters subliminally explored the imprisonment of the past versus the possibilities for the present – fear for the future meant it couldn’t quite yet be embraced.
Birth-rate was an important issue at this time. Not only ‘how many’, but how much longer to wait ‘til the next’. The perils of childbirth, coupled with the corresponding need to develop sometimes dependent relationships (to manage these expectations) provided a darker narrative to this play.
The pressures of coercion brought out the ‘God’ element in the tile of the show: as we delved into the underlying issues, where is it that we find that the good inherently found within us: is it just endless babies, or might there be something else?
Themes of emotional and physical abuse were touched upon in an understated way, but also with a concern for the newborn – who would we nowadays describe as ‘properly’ cared for?
The four characters featured were all very different, but they complimented each other beautifully – their individuality shining through.
The religious theme needed to be returned to when the issue of child mortality was addressed: the gift from God needing cherishing and embracing vs the absence of answers when such a gift needed to be returned, This certainly wasn’t an always an easy story.
The characters were desperately attempting to juggle the straightforward instruction of their upbringing, versus the harsh realities of the world then encountered. As was said in the show, the seeming ‘expanse of the present can narrow into something much smaller’. Where, at that point, do we turn?
The performance finished at 1.50pm.
Sex and God, Thursday 20th August 2025, theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall
Continues daily until Saturday 23rd August | 1.00pm – 1.50pm
£12.00 | £10.00 (concessions)