Of Kith And Kin Fails to Deliver Early Promise

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Penny Flood is left unmoved by disappointing family drama at the Bush Theatre

Oliver (Joshua Silver), Daniel (James Lance) and Priya (Chetna Pandya) are going to have a baby. She's the gay couple's surrogate, they've all known each other for years. Priya was the celebrant at the boys' civil ceremony and their wedding, with that history they should have a good ideas of each other's personality traits, so it stretches credulity that Oliver and Priya are so shocked at Daniel's behaviour.

It opens as the threesome are having a baby shower for Thomas who’s due any minute. Everybody’s happy then Daniel's mother Lydia (Joanna Bacon), comes in with some presents. She and the presents - a yellow baby grow, a scented candle and a squeaky rubber duck - are the unlikely catalysts for a complete change of mood and it descends into bad feeling with lots of yelling, and more or less carries on like that.

There are some big issues here, not least gay parenthood and surrogacy, which could have been the trigger for interesting discussion and analysis, but that just doesn't happen. Instead we get bad temper, unkindness, irrational behaviour and selfishness.

It's a long play with plenty of drama and crashes to its tortuous finale via the family court and a trashed nursery. The ending should have been a tear jerker but I'm sorry to say by that time I'd lost interest.

Of Kith And Kin continues at the Bush Theatre, 7 Uxbridge Road, until 25 November with matinees on Wednesday and Saturday and an audio described performance this Saturday, 11 November at 2.30pm.

Find out more and book tickets here or call the box office on 020 8743 5050.

November 7, 2017