Bea meets Aaron. He’s intelligent, handsome, makes her laugh and, most importantly, has a high rating on his genetic profile. What’s not to like? Char is on the brink of landing her dream job and has big plans to start a family – but her blood rating threatens it all. In a world where future happiness depends on a single, inescapable blood test – which dictates everything from credit rating to dating prospects – how far will people go to beat the system and let nature take its course?

Ella Road’s debut play is a powerfully provocative vision of the future, questioning the value we place on one another, whether knowledge really is power, and if it’s truly possible for love to conquer all.

Images by Marc Brenner

Reviews

4**** THE GUARDIAN | Lyn Gardner “A gasp-worthy dystopian thriller… It comes very neatly packaged in a production by Sam Yates that elicits terrific performances, particularly from Anouka as a woman who wants a sure return on her emotional investments, but discovers real love is unconditional.”

4**** THE EVENING STANDARD | Henry Hitchins “Sam Yates’s lean production uses video to establish the play’s futuristic context, and the action takes place on a long traverse stage, which means the characters seem like lab specimens chosen for the audience’s anxious scrutiny. The performances pop with vitality, as magnetic Jade Anouka and the coolly rumpled Rory Fleck Byrne make Bea and Aaron’s moments of intimacy sing…The issues being addressed here are important, and Road tackles them with confidence. At its best her writing is as fresh as tomorrow’s dawn.”

4**** WHAT’S ON STAGE | Daisy Bowie-Sell “Sam Yates’ direction is sharp-eyed and he deals with the many changes in scene very well, letting the set become a messy space filled with props and costume detritus. It’s a reminder that this is a play – a fiction – but makes you ask: for just how long?…The characters are nicely drawn and the whole cast is strong, particularly Anouka and Cherrelle Skeete as Char, who have a brilliantly warm and real friendship. Skeete’s transformation – from an ambitious social player to a social justice campaigner – is both convincing and heartbreaking. The two of them give beautifully judged performances which are so enjoyable to watch.”

4**** THE STAGE | Briget Minamore “Vincent Ebrahim’s zen, wise David and Cherrelle Skeete’s career-driven, fearful then hopeful Char—both shine, as do Rory Fleck Byrne and Jade Anouka as couple Aaron and Bea. Their chemistry through both good times and bad is charged and brilliant, and continually reminds us of the play’s human core.”

5***** THE UPCOMING | Daniel Amir “Director Sam Yates has not only managed the feat of eliciting these well-rounded performances, but of making room economically for beautiful theatrical images and allowing the set to expand and contract between the private and public.”