A 60s family drama about change and compromise that never quite lands.
Blessings, written and directed by Sarah Shelton, is set in a small English town in 1969. It’s a time of huge social change, when younger generations are questioning whether the roles prescribed by the nuclear family really lead to happy lives.
At church on Easter Sunday, the Deacon family seem content. They are held together by the firm but caring matriarch Dorie (Anna Acton). Acton balances being an oppressive presence in her children’s lives with moments of tenderness, and is a strong presence on stage.
When their eldest daughter, Frances (Hannah Traylen), is revealed to be pregnant, the tension rises and the cracks in the family show. It’s a play about how much people are willing to compromise for family harmony.
At times, the writing is a little on the nose, and some plotlines feel underexplored or introduced too late. There are also sections that clearly lead towards something but don’t resolve. The soap-opera influence is obvious – Shelton wrote for Channel 5’s Family Affairs and Gary Webster, who plays Frank Deacon and Father O’Brien, acted in it – but here a storyline for a whole series seems crammed into a ninety-minute runtime.
Webster has the challenge of playing these two very different characters in his double casting, and he transitions between them impressively. His final monologue was when the play felt most alive; it is also the scene where Emily Lane (Sally Deacon) is given the most to work with. The actors are dynamic, but the plot limits them by mistiming its reveals and misjudging the scale of reactions.
Costuming by Alice Carroll is impressive, giving each character individuality while evoking the decade. Andy Graham’s sound design also helps with this and his song choices are particularly well done.
The play touches on important contexts like the Troubles and Harold Wilson’s social reforms, which gave working-class people more security and opportunity, but these themes don’t feel fully explored. It does evoke the 60s well and it’s fun to see a time of so many changes and such iconic fashion being put on stage.
Blessings has a lot of potential. The setting is well realised, and the plot has space for intrigue. But it tries to do too much and ends up doing too little. Dialogue often feels expositional rather than emotional. The play struggles with rhythm, rushing from reveal to reveal without showing their impact on the characters. It’s a shame, because much of what it wants to explore is both interesting and important to put on stage.