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Sparks fly when Harriet and Sally try for a baby
TABOOS
New End Theatre
ONE of New End Theatre’s most popular shows last year
was Tell Me No Lies – a retrospective of Robert Maxwell,
with Toby Young as the lead.
The show, picked up by Dale Djerassi at the Edinburgh Festival
and transferred to the West End, was a sell-out success.
Five months on, Dale’s famous dad Carl Djerassi –
the scientist who invented the contraceptive pill that helped
trigger the social revolution of the 1960s – returns to
the Hampstead fringe with his own script.
A lesbian couple, Harriet and Sally, are having a baby using
the sperm of Harriet’s brother. Sally’s long-lost
brother – a conservative Christian from the Deep South
– is trying desperately for a baby with his wife. Naturally,
he doesn’t approve of his sister’s life in San Francisco
and a conflict breaks out.
But familial duty and affection brings the couples back together.
Jane Perry is convincing as the self-possessed doctor Harriet
who talks loudly and moves with confidence. There is distinct
tension when Harriet meets Priscilla, the southern wife, for
the first time. Priscilla paces uncomfortably around the room
looking for evidence of her sister’s “sin”.
The set is simple with clean, modern furniture appropriate to
the story. Only a few small details tell us whether we are in
Mississippi or San Francisco. The single set’s message
seems to be that we are all the same deep down.
Unfortunately we never find out much about Priscilla or her
husband Cam and it is hard to ever really believe in them.
As a scientist Djerassi is firmly on the side of progress. His
script mocks the Southerners for clinging on to their old-fashioned
beliefs – their praying is made to seem ridiculous. As
a result they are more caricatures than characters and the drama
is less effective because of this.
Until April 22
0870 033 2733
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