Here’s a perfect prop for farce: a huge, baby-blue birthing pool, stubbornly resisting inflation, plonked in the new home of soon-to-be parents Jen (Laura Main) and Mark (Sam Alexander). And over there is a faulty fuse box, a misbehaving floorboard and a homemade badger trap. What to expect when you’re expecting? In this case you’d assume some deliriously silly pratfalls and heartwarming comedy but the new play by Broadchurch creator and former Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall never quite delivers.
In a drama that plays out in just about real time, the opening scenario will be familiar to many. How, after nine months of planning, can you still feel quite so unprepared for the main event? And how can anyone possibly be ready for the terrifying responsibilities of parenthood anyway? Jen proves more pragmatic and focused while Mark spirals from fretting about the tens machine to declaring himself a failed dad before the baby’s even born.
As the play will suggest, it takes a family to deliver a child. In this case, that means team work from Mark’s errant dad Dave (James Gaddas), Dave’s uproarious girlfriend Alize (Valerie Antwi), Jen’s doula-wannabe mum Eileen (Sherry Baines) and the couple’s upstairs neighbour, Paul (David Partridge), who has a vendetta against the garden’s poor badger.
An opening high-speed rant about hospital parking fees is the first of several speeches that resemble observational standup routines, combining bafflement and rage. But the characters rarely stray from one register. Dave, largely absent from his son’s birth and childhood, is newly reunited with him yet their relationship remains under-explored as do the others and there is surprisingly little tenderness all round.
Simon Kenny’s set is flanked by huge glowing smartphone screens which show chats, emojis, videos and photos sent and received by various characters including Eileen, a “silver surfer” dedicated to her daily BeReal and Insta. It captures the patchwork of contemporary communication but unlike, say, the superbly timed group-chat sequence in Eureka Day at the Old Vic, these messages are rarely hilarious in themselves and don’t build a satisfying comic rhythm with the actors’ dialogue.
Farce can be a taskmaster and there are some agreeable performances in Gareth Machin’s production. But the ending of the first and second halves is never in doubt and the plot seldom startles; neither is there the specific physicality, frantic flow or irresistible set piece that the form requires, which is a shame as Chibnall’s script has some good jokes. That pace and precision might yet come – with one last push.
At Salisbury Playhouse until 9 March
