ajhlovestheatre

BLESSINGS 

written and directed by Sarah Shelton 

Riverside Studios, London – until 26 October 2025

running time: 90 minutes including interval 

https://riversidestudios.co.uk/see-and-do/blessings-177622/

Family intrigue is fertile dramatic ground. So it proves once again, in Sarah Shelton‘s new play which centres on an English Catholic family going through more than their fair share of challenges in the late 1960s, a time when the UK was experiencing some seismic societal and political changes . Blessings feels like a deeply personal play, a rich seam of affection running through the guilt, tantrums, traumas, and the skeletons rattling in the family closet.

Shelton, who directs her own work here, draws the central Deacon family and the other characters who come into their orbit, including a priapic youngster with designs on daughter Sally, and the Irish priest whose pastoral care verges on the oppressive, with an appealing lack of judgement and considerable warmth. The quirks, foibles and bad behaviours of the individuals could be rendered perhaps with bolder strokes (although expanded here from an earlier hour long version, Blessings still feels like a work-in-progress) but watching a family unit implode is inevitably compulsive viewing, even if this feels a little safe.

Unplanned pregnancy (more than one actually), domestic strife, alcoholism, social mobility, the disconnect between generations… These topics all get a look-in; there’s so much interesting stuff that one wonders if the play might benefit from being a full two act piece. Fleshing it out more might also help with the too-abrupt conclusion that has genuine dramatic heft and surprise, as it answers multiple questions posed earlier by the script, but feels currently as though the play just stops rather than ends satisfyingly.

There’s a pleasing symmetry in having former EastEnder Gary Webster portraying both the feckless patriarch Frank and the meddlesome but well meaning (or is he?) Father O’Brien. Freddie Webster, Gary’s real life son, doubles up as pompous, social climbing Martin Deacon, and Peter, the local lad who fancies Emily Lane‘s delightful Sally. Anna Acton delivers sensitive, committed work as mother Dorie, torn between caring, and raging disappointment.

Dorie isn’t the only mother in the house, and Hannah Traylen is nicely astringent as newly pregnant but decidedly single Frances, trying to reconcile her desire for independence with her need for parental support. A curiosity is that the family is working class but Webster’s cravat-wearing Martin, and Millie Roberts (excellent) as third sister Penny, a teacher, have both relocated to London and appear to have  entered a different social class altogether. I guess this is the way the capital was perceived from the provinces in 1969, but the disparity here is pretty glaring. 

Designer Alice Carroll gives the show the eye-catching, slightly garish look of the ‘swinging decade’ of the last century, although the wide composite set representing three locations at once, sits a little awkwardly on the stage of the Riverside’s studio two. 

Shelton invest her characters with a sometimes biting wit (“yes we know, she’s got a First from Cambridge and she doesn’t fart” observes Penny sardonically of Martin’s upper crust London girlfriend) but it always feels apiece with the heartfelt stuff that is at the core of the play. In a programme note, the playwright explains that she had originally conceived the piece as a screenplay and there are traces of that in the structure of short, staccato scenes punctuated by blast of 1960s pop. Blessings isn’t particularly original, and actually has a rather lovely old-fashioned air to it, but with a little more deep digging and a stronger ending, it could be really powerful. As it stands, it’s very entertaining.