REVIEW | Son of a Bitch Southwark Playhouse - Borough
- Harry Brogan
- Mar 2
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 3
AD | tickets gifted in exchange of an honest review
TW: This production contains strong language and references to mental health, infertility, and child loss during pregnancy - Recommend age 14+
Son of a Bitch is a play about a Mum, called Marnie, that had her worst behaviour recorded for 10 seconds. During a chaotic flight she called her son the C-word, and now the video has gone viral, on TikTok, Instagram… Everywhere, with the famous #sonofabitch
Anna Morris, who not only wrote Son of a Bitch but performs in the show. Morris is a very remarkable writer and performer, especially as Morris performs all of the characters of her story. Morris is very good at sharing with the audience this biography of a woman that always felt pressured to have kids, from her mother, her husband and her friends that are getting married… Then finally she had one, her son Charlie, because she felt like she had too. The themes of relationship, sex and parenthood are presented in a unique angle with this performance.
Morris portrays the characters in this 60 minute show really well, but the key to the show is the main character Marnie. We follow Marnie throughout a timeline where we have flashbacks of before she gets married and has Charlie, before the video has gone viral. The journey of any woman showing how universal the pressure around fertility, not being hysterical, not being too much, is important in this day and age, it is a great feminist speech.
The set, by Set Designer Cory Shipp, is very well used, simple but suitable for the show, I felt there could have had more on sensations at times, but it was effective. One example of this was when the show / set is playing out the scene on the plane, we feel as if we are on the plane, being in the airport. But as much as all of the characters were embodied really well by Morris and we see them through her characterisation and where they are, I would have liked to travel even more with them. Apart from that the direction of Madelaine Moore is very subtle, and Morris' physicality was impressive. As I said before, Morris being the only performer covering all the characters for 60 minutes and ensuring the message got over fully to the audience was great.
The tones of this solo show are so rich and well articulated. We laugh, we laugh because we identify ourselves too much in the brutal honesty of Marnie. The fact that the text is visible on this upper screen, that serves also as part of the airport scenes, gives the effect of inner thoughts that are said out loud but also allows the audience to follow all of the voices of the show, all gathered in Morris' performance.
Son of a Bitch brings the themes of relationship, sex and parenthood to the audience in a unique and relatable angle.
★★★★
Son of a Bitch is playing now until the 15th March at the Southwark Playhouse
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