A Child of Science
An Impossible Producing and Bristol Old Vic co-production premiered summer 2024 at Bristol Old Vic.
The production has been nominated for Best Play at the 2024 UK Theatre Awards.
Watch this space for news about what next for this critically acclaimed production
Script Playtext available to buy here
#SouthWestEnd
Award winning Cornwall based writer Gareth Farr’s brilliant new play tells their pioneering story, and those of the army of women from all over the UK whose immense bravery helped them achieve the impossible – to create human life in vitro.
A Child of Science charts the incredible events that led to one of the most remarkable medical breakthroughs of our time: the birth of a baby girl and the creation of IVF, a procedure which has supported the birth of over 12 million babies worldwide over the last forty years.
Directed by the highly acclaimed West End director Matthew Dunster (Hangmen, 2:22 A Ghost Story, Shirley Valentine) and featuring the award-winning Tom Felton (Harry Potter), A Child of Science is about determination, dreams, hope, and courage. It’s a celebration of life.
Joining the previously revealed Tom Felton (2:22 A Ghost Story) will be Jamie Glover (Waterloo Road, What’s In A Name?) as Patrick Steptoe, Meg Bellamy (known for her appearance as Kate Middleton in the final season of The Crown, now making her professional stage debut) as embryologst Jean Purdy, Adelle Leonce (Fool Me Once, Emilia) as Margaret, one of the hundreds of anonymous women who assisted in the medical trials and Sonoya Mizuno (Devs, House of the Dragon) in roles including philanthropist Lillian Lincoln Howell and Sheena Steptoe.
The cast is completed by Saikat Ahamed (Life of Pi), Gruffudd Glyn (Joseph K and the Cost of Living), Bobby Hirston (The Play That Goes Wrong), Amy Loughton (Animal), Bebe Sanders (Twelfth Night) and Everal A Walsh (Rockets and Blue Lights ).
A Child of Science is an “ingeniously crafted” (★★★★★ The Times), “gripping” (★★★★ The Telegraph) and “powerful” (★★★★ WhatsOnStage) new play with the “urgency of a thriller” (★★★★ The Stage).
This production launched our ambition for The South West End - excellent, large scale, ambitious theatre productions led by Cornish talent and premiered in the South West. Gareth Farr is a Cornish based writer, Casting Director Matilda James and Associate Director Alix Harris and actor Adelle Leonce are from Cornwall.
Production Image credits: Helen Murray
Gareth Farr’s debut full-length play, Britannia Waves the Rules, won the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting in 2011 and was produced at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. His second play, The Quiet House (Birmingham Rep Theatre) transferred to Park Theatre in London in 2016. A short film of The Quiet House was later commissioned by Fertility Fest in association with the Wellcome Trust and produced in 2019. Gareth’s third play Shandyland was originally developed as part of the prestigious Old Vic 12 scheme and has been adapted for BBC Radio 4. His most recent play Biscuits For Breakfast ran last spring at the Hampstead Theatre.
Director Matthew Dunster has directed or written over sixty theatre shows, often with major national companies (including the RSC, National Theatre, Royal Court, Young Vic, Royal Exchange, Shakespeare’s Globe and The Bridge), as well as directing on the West End, Broadway and internationally. He has been the Associate Director of The Young Vic and Shakespeare’s Globe. His most recent productions are 2:22 A Ghost Story (which ran in the West End for 694 performances), Shirley Valentine and The Pillowman (both The Duke of York’s), and The Homecoming (Young Vic). Matthew has been nominated for four Olivier Awards and his Broadway production of Hangmen was nominated for five Tonys. In 2025, he will direct Conor McPherson’s stage adaptation of The Hunger Games.
A Child of Science set design is by Olivier Award-winning and Tony-nominated designer Anna Fleischle. Anna’s credits include Nachtland – Young Vic; The Time Traveller’s Wife – West End; The Pillowman – West End; The Collaboration – Broadway/Young Vic; Death Of A Salesman – Broadway/Young Vic/West End; 2:22 A Ghost Story – West-End/LA/Tour/Melbourne; Hangmen – Broadway/West End/Royal Court; Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – West End/UK tour/LA and Home, I’m Darling – National Theatre/West End/Tour.
The creative team is completed by Costume Designer and Associate Set Designer Angelica Rush (Eclipse – Winner of the APDG Emerging Designer 2023; Ghost Stories Australia – Atheneum Theatre, Associate Designer for Jon Bausor; 2:22 A Ghost Story Australia – Her Majesty’s Theatre, Associate Designer for Anna Fleischle). Lighting Designer Sally Ferguson (recent credits The Duchess of Malfi – Shakespeare’s Globe; The Homecoming – Young Vic), Sound Design Holly Khan (Olivier-nominated Blackout Songs – Hampstead Theatre; Tess – Sadlers Wells with Ockhams Razor; Dreaming and Drowning – The Bush) and Niamh Gaffney for Autograph, Composer Genevieve Dawson (albums include Letters I Won’t Send, What’s Mine is Yours; and toured internationally with Anna B Savage), Video Designer Gino Ricardo Green (Tambo and Bones – Theatre Royal Stratford East; August In England and Lava – Bush Theatre; Othello – National Theatre, Co-Video Designer), Hair and Make Up Designer Zoë Louise Gale (Six: The Musical; Hamilton – both West End) and Associate Director Alix Harris (Theatre Director, writer and dramaturg and Founder and Artistic Director of Beyond Face. Credits include: The Honeyman – Exeter Northcott; I Am Because We Are – Contact Theatre).
