A Little Inquest Into What We Are All Doing Here review – notes on a scandal
Shoreditch Town Hall, LondonThe cancellation in 2022 of a sex education show for children and their families is revisited in this hour of artistic self-assessmentThe stage is dressed for an interrogation, a testimony or perhaps a press conference: microphones jostle around a desk. The lights flicker and we hear a few bars of the 60s hit You Don’t Own Me: “Don’t tell me what to do / Don’t tell me what to say.”Enter stage left: a body zipped inside a clothes bag, wriggling then rolling along the floor. Emerging from this chrysalis is Josie Dale-Jones, here to revisit the high-profile cancellation mid-rehearsals of her company’s sex education theatre production three years ago. Part autobiography and part fiction, this inquest – previously staged at the Edinburgh festival where it won a Fringe First award – explores events before, after and in the eye of the storm surrounding The Family Sex Show. Thousands signed a petition against it, one of its venues received a bomb threat and Dale-Jones was branded sick, irresponsible – and much worse – for exploring material deemed “inappropriate” for young audiences. Continue reading...
Shoreditch Town Hall, London
The cancellation in 2022 of a sex education show for children and their families is revisited in this hour of artistic self-assessment
The stage is dressed for an interrogation, a testimony or perhaps a press conference: microphones jostle around a desk. The lights flicker and we hear a few bars of the 60s hit You Don’t Own Me: “Don’t tell me what to do / Don’t tell me what to say.”
Enter stage left: a body zipped inside a clothes bag, wriggling then rolling along the floor. Emerging from this chrysalis is Josie Dale-Jones, here to revisit the high-profile cancellation mid-rehearsals of her company’s sex education theatre production three years ago. Part autobiography and part fiction, this inquest – previously staged at the Edinburgh festival where it won a Fringe First award – explores events before, after and in the eye of the storm surrounding The Family Sex Show. Thousands signed a petition against it, one of its venues received a bomb threat and Dale-Jones was branded sick, irresponsible – and much worse – for exploring material deemed “inappropriate” for young audiences. Continue reading...
