A Child of Science: Theatre Review

A Child of Science is a new play, written by Gareth Farr. It’s a fictional story, but it’s based on the true events of scientists working on new IVF treatments, and the women involved. It’s a powerful, moving play but also enjoyable to watch. Here’s my A Child of Science Theatre Review.

Overview of A Child of Science

A Child of Science is a fictional play, but it’s based on true events. It tells the story of the scientists who were working on the new IVF treatments in the 1950s and 1960s in the UK. And it also tells the story of the women who were involved in the early IVF trials. A Child of Science is an easy play to follow, so my A Child of Science theatre review won’t give too many details of the plot – it’s easy to follow on stage.

A Child of Science follows the main scientists who were involved in the pioneering research: Robert Edwards (Bob), Patrick Steptoe and Jean Purdy. The play starts by showing their successful trials of IVF using animals, and then shows how they started to experiment with human eggs and embryos. The play also covers the reaction of the press and religious figures, especially in the lead up to the birth of the first IVF baby.

As well as following the scientists, their research and their battles with funding and public opinion – this play covers more. It also focuses on the stories of the women involved in the early IVF trials. One woman in particular is followed throughout the play, and we see her emotional struggles as she learns she cannot have children naturally. She then signs up to be ‘Patient 38’ in the first IVF trials, and again we see her repeated heartbreak as she tries ten rounds of IVF treatment and each one is unsuccessful. We also see the story of the woman who gave birth to the first IVF baby.

What I liked about A Child of Science

I really enjoyed A Child of Science. I felt like the play did a really good job of balancing the scientific and the emotional sides of the IVF story. It focussed on the scientific developments and the scientists, but it also told the really powerful other side of the story – the women involved who were hoping to have children.

I enjoyed both sides of the story equally. Sometimes, when a play deals with more than one narrative, I find I prefer one to the other. So then I end up wanting my less favourite narrative to go quickly so we can get back to the one I prefer. But in this play, I thought both sides of the narrative were equally good. I enjoyed the scenes with the scientific discoveries and the tension and excitement of those scenes. But I also enjoyed the powerful, emotional scenes where we could really see what IVF meant to the people and women involved in the trials.

The second half of the play was particularly moving, as it covered the IVF clinical trials where women were hoping to give birth. I think a lot of the audience were crying at times during the second half, as we saw the emotions in the characters and what IVF meant to them.

A real highlight of seeing this play was seeing Tom Felton play Robert Edwards, in the production in Bristol. Tom Felton played Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter, so it was great to see such a famous actor on stage. And he was brilliant. He conveyed the emotion of his discoveries brilliantly. But he also managed to bring some humour into the role. His acting was just great, from his quick delivery of short lines, to small things like a slight movement of the head that really focussed the scene.

What I wasn’t so sure about

There wasn’t much of A Child of Science that I didn’t like. I enjoyed the performance, and found it educational and also moving. But it maybe wasn’t quite as emotional and moving as I thought it might be. There were a lot of content warnings about this play – things like themes of loss, scenes with blood etc. So I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, and how easy it would be to watch. But I found the play very easy to watch – the scenes with blood weren’t particularly shocking. And the emotional scenes were definitely sad, but I wasn’t a complete emotional mess. I’m still a bit undecided about whether the emotion level was about right or whether they could have done more. I guess some of that might depend on the personal experiences of audience members and whether these themes strike a personal chord in the audience members.

I thought Tom Felton was amazing in the show. But the other actors weren’t quite on the same level. They were still good actors, and there wasn’t anything particular that I thought they did badly or wrong. It’s just that they weren’t at the same level. And in many scenes I found my eyes were mostly drawn to the character of Robert Edwards over the others.

Would I recommend A Child of Science

I would definitely recommend A Child of Science. It was a well written and well acted play. I enjoyed both sides of the narrative, from the scientific discoveries to the emotional journeys of the women involved in the trials. I really enjoyed this play.