A Little Inquest Into What We Are All Doing Here
★★★★☆ Fascinating
Traverse: Thurs 24/Fri 25 Apr 2025
Review by Hugh Simpson.
ThisEgg’s A Little Inquest Into What We Are All Doing Here, at the Traverse for two nights only, is a compelling piece of theatre and well deserving of the Fringe First it won last year.
In fact, A Little Inquest… owes its existence to another show entirely. A show that in 2022 was cancelled before it even started: The very idea of a piece aimed at anyone over five years old, dealing with sexuality, relationships and gender, led to a campaign online that ended up with threats against the company, their families and venues.
Josie Dale-Jones in A Little Inquest Into What We Are All Doing Here. Pic: Alex Brenner.
The inadequacy of sex and relationship education has been put into even starker relief by the torrent of potentially dangerous misinformation in young people’s online lives. But this small attempt to provide empowerment and information about consent was scuppered by trolls, the Daily Mail and a petition with links to the US Christian right.
Of course, no-one had seen the show (it wasn’t finished). No-one wanted to attend rehearsals, or even ask what was going to be in it. Because they already knew without bothering to find out.
Out of that debacle came A Little Inquest. Much of it features ThisEgg’s writer-performer-producer Josie-Dale Jones detailing what happened in the style of a witness at an inquest; the earlier production’s genesis, its cancellation, and the effects of it all on her and others. Some of the emails (and old-fashioned, hand-written letters) that were sent as a response to the online storm are almost incredible.
commendably even-handed
The writing (credited to Dale-Jones, Abbi Greenland who is responsible for the finished text, and to director Rachel Lemon) is commendably even-handed and without rancour. Those mistakes that were made are acknowledged, not least the fact that the title The Family Sex Show was an unnecessary hostage to fortune from the very start.
All of which might make this seem like a very dry, worthy, affair – one of those bits of ‘theatre about theatre’ that have very little appeal to outsiders. Yet this is far from being the case. Alongside the ‘inquest’ part of the show are other elements of performance that turn this into something else entirely.
Josie Dale-Jones and Laurence Baker in A Little Inquest Into What We Are All Doing Here. Pic: Alex Brenner.
Josie Dale-Jones and Laurence Baker in A Little Inquest Into What We Are All Doing Here. Pic: Alex Brenner.It isn’t really fair to go into these in much detail when the unexpectedness of much of it is the very point; suffice it to say that it is personal, well-considered and surprisingly humorous. It also opens with Dale-Jones crawling across the stage, caterpillar-like, in a body bag, in a beautifully timed piece of physical comedy.
Dale-Jones is a wonderfully expressive performer; Laurence Baker, the only other figure seen on stage also impresses. Lemon’s direction is assured, while James Mackenzie’s lighting – sometimes pin-sharp, at other times deliberately oppressive – is very good indeed.
What can be said about the various different parts of an always thought-provoking production is that they deal with the possibilities and possible limits of artistic expression.
pressing
This is even more pressing in an era when those who shout loudest about ‘free speech’ often take it to mean that you should shout at anyone who is different from you while preventing them from replying. And, conversely, when regard for others’ feelings can lead to the self-policing of every thought, which can be the enemy of self-expression.
The whole idea of ‘safety’, and how it comes up against the artistic impulse, looms very large here. The result is an unclassifiable but fascinating production.
Running time: One hour and 5 minutes (no interval)
Traverse, 10 Cambridge Street, EH1 2ED.
Thurs 24/Fri 25 Apr 2025
Evening: 7.30pm (Trav 1).
Tickets and details: Book here.
Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill, London SW11 5TN
Thurs 1/Fri 2 May 2025
Evening: 7.30pm (Council Chamber).
Tickets and details: Book here.
ThisEgg website: www.thisegg.co.uk.
Instagram: @thisegg_
ENDS
