The Soon Life – Southwark Playhouse Borough
The Soon Life opens with precise staging, a brightly lit room with a sofa, table and garniture you would expect to see in any home. However, this was different a birth pool was inflated and positioned to one side of the room. Birthing books visible, a moses basket assembled, a sign of welcoming a new life, a baby. This was a planned home birth during a time of unknown risks from Covid 19, and hospital considered an unsafe place to give birth.
Phoebe Mcintosh is Bec a mixed-race young woman, pregnant and in the early stage of her labour. Whilst bouncing on her birthing ball in a zen state, calm, in control, listening to direction from her headphones, in walks the ‘ex’, Alex, (Joe Boylan). This disruption sets the tone of the play and the couple’s timeline in their relationship which brou...