The death of a child is one of the most traumatic and challenging experiences a family can have. In Stephen Beresford’s bitter-sweet comedy, The Southbury Child, a community is torn apart by it.
The community in this case is a small Devon village plagued by unemployment, tourism and class divisions. Deep social scars bleed into questions of how the child should be remembered. The family, and almost all the village, want the funeral to be held in the church, and to have it fully decorated in a way that Taylor Southbury, the child, would have liked, especially with lots of helium filled Disney ballons. Against them stands one man, David Highland (Bill Butler), the long-standing vicar of the parish. Not that he is unsympathetic, far from it, but he argues that the church stands for something more, and in its rituals represents an acknowledgement of the truths of our lives, not least that we will die. He rejects what seems from this point of view to be a trivialisation of the meaning of life and of death.
He is, one might argue, a true Anglican, a deeply flawed man who tries to find a way through conflicting situations that bears witness to the faith and at the same time embraces all peoples. Those around him are themselves neither good nor bad, but vulnerable, hurt, angry, frightened, confused; struggling each in their way to make sense of and acknowledge what matters in life.
Fortunately, the characterisation is strong, with some good performances to match. The vicar at the centre of this controversy, is torn and anguish ridden, struggling to remain true to his conscience while acknowledging his faults. His wife, Mary (Christine Evans) finds herself stretched between loyalty to her husband and that to the village, ultimately preferring a quiet life, though she too has to acknowledge some uncomfortable truths. Their daughters Suzannah (Kelly Davidson) and Naomi (Hadessa Ramjee) represent two starkly contrasting characters, and when one gets into trouble it rams home to their parents the reality behind the cosy abstractions.
For me, the outstanding performance and character was Connor Bailey’s, Lee Southbury, uncle to the dead girl and black sheep of the family. Bailey managed to give his character some dignity in spite of his glaring flaws. It is a difficult thing to make a character who is, from a certain point of view, stupid with some very ugly attitudes, both believable and sympathetic and far from a stereotype. His sister, Tina Southbury, mother to Taylor, was magnificent in her fury at the vicar and her brother, and achingly moving in her pain.
The Southbury Child is a deeply thoughtful, often very funny, moving and prescient play, superbly cast and sensitively played throughout. It manages to pack into a couple of hours many of the issues of our day, which some might say is its fault. But, again arguably, like the Church itself, it manages to be both part of them and to rise above them.
Tickets: The Criterion Theatre, Coventry https://criteriontheatre.co.uk