'The Quiet House' Park Theatre ****

An astronomic bulk of married couples are determined to get pregnant, yet morosely couples cannot get pregnant in the normal way and have to resort to either IVF or adoption to become satisfied with their lives. The Park Theatre’s production of, Gareth Farr’s newest play, ‘The Quiet House’ was a really moving and informative show on one couple’s quest to get pregnant and the pressure each try of IVF has on their marriage, moreover, the depictions are dearly compelling and extremely smashing too.

‘The Quiet House’ is set on the ground floor flat somewhere in London where we’re familiarised with Jess and Dylan who have been laboriously trying to conceive for a baby for some time and from failed attempts, they use IVF for Jess to become pregnant. You can noticeably see that Jess and Dylan are desperate to become parents in a biological way and each and every IVF attempt does not go to plan wistfully and this causes Jess to feel really down. Also, her confidence starts to decompose and this causes Dylan to become increasingly fretful that their nuptials could be on the slide. Over the course of the performance, the woman who lives in the flat upstairs, Kim has a couple of weeks old baby which appears to be slightly awkward for Jess and Dylan as their desire for a baby boosts and when the baby is crying it really upsets Jess and it makes her feel like a catastrophe. Dylan is a devoted husband and when he has to inject the IVF solution in Jess’ body, he makes an attentive effort to make the atmosphere as romantic by dimming the lights and putting some passionate and smouldering music on as it could aid in a fruitful outcome, as such; it is a different way just like you’d be having sexual activity in bed. Throughout the show we can see that Dylan’s work are aware of his and Jess’ plans and Dylan’s line manager, Tony is somewhat considerate of Dylan’s feelings, yet, his work head does override his compassionate side and demands that Dylan has to travel abroad to oversee something, on the contrary, his business trip falls in the time frame where Jess has to be injected with the IVF solution and kindly asks Tony to re-arrange the trip, but no can do. In one moment Kim’s baby is waiting in the corridor inside of her pram and Kim has left her for some time and to calm the baby down, Jess takes the baby off for a wander, yet her good intentions are short-lived as Kim freaks out as Kim thought that her baby was kidnapped. As the plot progresses, there is more bad news for Jess and Dylan as their current attempt for IVF blunders which makes the situation worsen, then again, you can see the strength that they have, nonetheless, when Dylan returns from his business trip there is a small level of tension due to the incident with Kim’s baby. At the finale, Jess and Dylan give IVF another go and it seems that this could be a successful result, but as the outcomes is read out by Jess and Dylan, a blackout occurs which means we are left on tender-hooks. Farr’s narrative titillating as we are given the opportunity to observe one married couples longing to become parents and it is rather interesting to see how a male playwright has been able to write about a sensitive issue for women in such a delicate manner and this is sublime.

One found the performances by the company of, ‘The Quiet House’ to be gigantically dainty as we can see how they have portrayed the warm and soothing couple and the emotional moments have been carefully considered as to not offend audiences that may have gone through this. Michelle Bonnard is fantastic as the hopeful mother, Jess; especially how the willpower she has to get up the duff and when she is with Kim’s baby, we can see that how natural she is and that she’ll be a really good mother to her own child. Oliver Lansley is glossy as Jess’ loyal husband, Dylan; specifically how desperate he is to become a parent like his wife is and when he breaks down in tears in Jess’ lap, we can see the emotional toll that the IVF attempts are having on his heart, also, I liked the moment he injects the solution into Jess’s body shows us the intimacy of their relationship. Allyson Ava-Brown is decent as the upstairs neighbour, Kim; in particular how that there are aspects when she does leave her baby in the corridor alone does makes you think is she suitable as a mother, but most mother’s do leave their babies alone so it is largely normal to do that. Tom Walker is excellent as Dylan’s supervisor, Tony; chiefly when he is in the office where he is with Dylan and there is a level of how bosses sometimes have no clue of how their employees have personal issue and that work is not the most important thing to them and this is shown where he goes on about the business trip.

Tessa Walker’s direction is beauteous here as she has shown us the development of the use of IVF as a method of conceiving a baby and that the unfortunate amount of nose-dived attempts will make people i.e. Jess and Dylan be more ambitious with becoming parents, in addition to this, it is pleasing that we could see the needle being injected into Jess’ body which means nothing is off limits in this show. Ana Inés Jabares-Pita’s design is of a reasonable standard as the particularising of the London flat was good here and the white furniture does make you think is the flat places for a new born baby but then this precisely what all expectant mothers and fathers have to figure out in the preparation stages of a pregnancy. Overall, the experience of, ‘The Quiet House’ was an exorbitantly engaging production of the utilisation of IVF in the conception of babies and the yearning of having babies.