Of Kith And Kin - Review

Hi today I have something exciting. I went to see a show. A play. My first ever play. I admit I did think when are they going to break into song! I went with my mum and we met up with our friend Jean who we met through the CVI Society. We went to the bush theatre to see the play running there, until the 25th November if you want to go watch it, called Kith And Kin. We were lucky enough to be invited by Jean and her son, Chris, who is the playwright of the show. We were lucky enough to meet him before the show and have a chat. It was really interesting as before being a play writer, Chris was a social worker. Bit of a career change. But if you look at the shows he has wrote, you can see where elements of his carer as a social worker and his experiences with it have influenced his writing. As they say, write about what you know.

Of Kith and Kin is Chris's 3rd play, is 2hours long with a 20 minute interval. It follow a couple, Daniel and Oliver as they are throwing a baby shower, for their surrogate Priya. We see their friendship, they're best friends with Priya. Priya has been a surrogate before and has her own son. Everything is going well until an unxepected arrival at the front door arrives. Daniel's mum and what follows is families disagreeing and obivious underlying problems. A fight breaks out between the couple and Daniel assaults Oliver with his mum goading him. Priya standing in the corner in horror as to what is unfolding. When suddenly Priya goes into labour. I don't want to spoil the play so thats all I'm going to say because then we follow them after the fallout of what happened at the baby shower.

It was in a stage that was almost like a round stage. You had a square stage and a part of the audience each side except upstage. It was really cool and I found I liked the staging. It really showed if you were a good actor because there was no where to hide. There was no off switch. You had to really be in the moment and showing on your face. My mum said to me about how many lines they all had. And its true because the main 3, the actors who played Priya, Oliver and Daniel were onstage for pretty much every scene.

The actors in the show were very good, they really suited the characters and they really seemed to throw themselves into the characters. I also like the use of perhaps what would be considered older actors. Even though they aren't that old, you normally see fresh out of drama school, under 25's so it was nice to see the talent that is out there that isn't necessarily the stereotypical actor. It was a very small cast, 5 actors and one of the actress's who intially played Lydia, Daniel's mum, was double cast as another character. I won't say what the character is because it kind of gives a spoiler to the plot.

The lighting and the staging of the show was really cool. They used props to make it look like a room and to help reinforce where they were. The lighting was clever and how they used a curtain to move the story along with sound and visuals without needing a full scene. To progress the story through a scene transition was cool. Also with the way the audience was set up it almost felt as if you were just watching their lives, bit like say if you were watching Eastenders.

Overall I really enjoyed it and would go see another play. Definitely would go see another of Chris's work. I have found I much prefer the contemporary pieces, I have yet to see Shakespeare piece. I am glad I went to see this as my first play then something quite heavy as Shakespeare.

My mum and came out having quite enjoyed the show, the humour was good I found I felt the seats move because my mum was laughing. There is strong language, as word of warning but it didn't bother me. I really enjoyed it and really liked the bush theatre. I would definitely go there again.

If you want to go watch Kith and Kin, its on at the bush theatre until the 25th November, tickets start at £10. And again big thank you to Jean and Chris for inviting us!

Thanks for reading,
until next time
Sophie x