We sat down with award winning journalist Judi Bevan whose new play Too Many Books debuts at Upstairs at The Gatehouse from 26th Feb to 16th March. Tickets here.
Too Many Books is your debut play. What inspired you to bring such a personal and complex topic to the stage?
I have written other plays, but only one has so far been performed. I feel the subject of adoption is often overlooked as something that is ‘secret’ and should not be discussed. It also often gets quite a bad rap (although sometimes a good rap) in children’s stories. I also feel that IVF has taken centre stage in both theatre and film.
Can you share how your own experiences informed the development of the story and its characters?
My husband and I approached the adoption process with open minds and a degree of naiveté. Luckily we had the support of other people who had already adopted from China and their stories form part of the narrative. But much of the play such as the scenes between the social workers are fictional although loosely based on the characters of those we met.
The 1990s were a turning point for international adoption from China due to the one-child policy. How did the story reflect the lived realities of this historical moment?
Too Many Books reflects pretty much what was going on in international adoption at the time. There were very few social workers who were sympathetic to the idea of adopting babies or toddlers from China because they had a case-load of older and often more disturbed UK children. However the American experience was much happier with most adoptions from China taking place within six months of the first application – a much more can-do approach.
How do you manage the balance between the emotional depth, personal perspectives, and the systemic challenges of international adoption in your script?
This was difficult because I wanted the play to be driven by the story which is a traditional ‘quest’ plot rather than be too didactic. So I have tried to drip in the information into the dialogue a little at a time. However Dan’s speech to the tribunal, when the couple appeal against the rejection, contains quite a bit of information about the difficulties at the time.
The play explores how adoption systems address (or fail to address) the needs of children. How does the production team hope to shed light on this issue through storytelling?
We see Dan and Julia take on the might of the State as demonstrated by one under qualified social worker refusing to approve them on the grounds they are too high powered and have Too Many Books, the title of the play. Dan, is a barrister which gives him experience which helps him negotiate an appeal process which had never been done before. At the present, there are 80,000 children in care in the UK, most of them too old to be adopted while only 3,000 a year are available for adoption.
Why do you believe Too Many Books is an important story to tell in 2025?
In 1998, when the play starts, the adoption authorities were generally against adoptions of ethnically mixed children. And yet, in 1993, the Government had signed a treaty with China agreeing that British couples could adopt Chinese children, mainly babies or toddlers. But the authorities were against Caucasian couples adopting children of African or Indian ancestry. As Britain has become more integrated this attitude has softened a little and we are now seeing more adoptions of children with mixed ethnicity. However adoption in Britain is still, along with New Zealand more difficult than anywhere else in the world at a time when there are 80,000 children in care in the UK. China recently closed its doors for adoption as the one-child policy has been relaxed and, if anything the Chinese are now encouraging people to have more children as they realise they have an ageing population.